Engineering and manufacturing company Magna has hired more than 120 engineers from Optimus Ride, an autonomous vehicle and mobility company.
Ontario-based Magna struck a deal with the Boston-based Optimus Ride to take its engineering team on board in order to boost the company’s expertise in advanced sensing technologies.
“Growing our engineering bench strength in sensing hardware and software helps accelerate our path forward in a rapidly growing ADAS market,” says John O’Hara, President of Magna Electronics.
Optimus Ride’s former engineering team will remain based in Boston’s Seaport district and will establish a Boston-based engineering centre. Magna hopes that this new centre will give the company a strong presence in the community, which is renowned for its rich engineering talent, leading academic institutions, and robotics.
“As advancements in autonomy continue, we saw an opportunity to bring in additional expertise to support current programs as well as future customer needs. We are happy to welcome the Optimus Ride employees to the Magna family,” adds O’Hara.
Magna has been growing rapidly in recent months, adding extra staff and acquiring companies to its existing 150,000 or so employees around the world.
Back in July, 2021, Magna launched an electric powertrain joint venture with LG which is set to create e-motors, inverters and onboard chargers and, for certain automakers, related e-drive systems.
The company is also planning to launch its own powertrain system this year, which promises to increase range by up to 30% compared to traditional EVs.
