Autoliv and Magneti Marelli have signed a cooperation agreement for engineering, manufacturing and marketing automatic emergency systems and other telematics systems, as well as for manufacturing airbag electronic control units.

The firms will initially focus on a new telematics platform for the mass market. Together, the firms are telematics market leaders in Europe; however, telematics systems are typically offered as optional items in luxury and premium-end vehicles, as a result of which the market is relatively small.

Autoliv is a market leader in airbag ECUs while Magneti Marelli offers production capacity and local presence in a large number of markets. The firms will consider expanding their cooperation into other areas of advanced automotive safety system electronics.