KARIYA (Japan) ― DENSO Corporation, the world’s second largest mobility supplier, today celebrated the grand opening of its Seattle Innovation Lab, which will strengthen the company’s development of connected technologies and advance its Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform. The lab supports DENSO’s recent expansion into software-based solutions to complement its hardware expertise, bolsters its North American R&D strategy and helps actualize its long-term plan aimed at creating new value for future mobility. It also furthers DENSO’s exploration of new business domains, like MaaS, to propel its technology development and contribute to better, safer and more sustainable transportation solutions.

“Throughout DENSO’s 70 years, we’ve worked hard to reinvent our solutions and maintain a leadership role in the automotive industry. A large part of that is investing in R&D,” said Yoshifumi Kato, senior executive director, Engineering Research & Development Center, DENSO Corporation. 

MaaS involves the integration of various forms of transportation services through connected technologies that are accessible on-demand to travelers. In this area, DENSO is already developing cloud computing technology that collects and analyzes data from carsharing fleets and shares it with mobility service providers via the cloud to help improve fleet management. At DENSO’s Seattle Innovation Lab, the company will collaborate with the city’s many tech companies and universities to further develop its cloud computing technology, including edge computing for automated driving, and speed its platform development for MaaS systems. 

“Our Seattle Innovation Lab will play a key role in shaping DENSO’s technology for current and new customers, regionally and around the globe,” said Kenichiro Ito, senior executive officer for DENSO Corporation and chief executive officer of DENSO's North American Headquarters.  “As we continue to innovate in emerging fields, we are changing what is possible for the future of transportation and mobility, and setting the course for how we achieve it.”

The Seattle Innovation Lab is part of DENSO’s global R&D strategy aimed at enhancing the company’s R&D prowess worldwide. The strategy includes the recent opening of a similar Innovation Lab in Montréal, Canada, focused on advanced technology like artificial intelligence (AI), and developmental contributions from DENSO’s other satellite R&D locations in Finland, Israel and San Francisco. In the U.S., specifically, the Seattle Innovation Lab will add to DENSO’s already robust R&D network, which operates within its existing locations. 

Bill Foy, senior vice president of engineering at DENSO, said, “DENSO’s advanced R&D approach integrates agile development on a global scale. In North America, we’re partnering with innovative thinkers to execute on technologies and products that will define mobility for years to come.” 

DENSO is a $48.3 billion global mobility supplier that develops advanced technology and components for nearly every vehicle make and model on the road today. With manufacturing at its core, DENSO invests in its 211 facilities in 35 countries to produce thermal, powertrain, mobility, electrification, & electronic systems, to create jobs that directly change how the world moves. The company’s 170,000+ employees are paving the way to a mobility future that improves lives, eliminates traffic accidents, and preserves the environment. Globally headquartered in Kariya, Japan, DENSO spent 9.3 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019. For more information about global DENSO, visit https://www.denso.com/global/en