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Dacia Looking to Develop Autonomous Cars and Hybrids

Last year, the Dacia brand delivered 511,000 cars across the world. The carmaker's hero car remains the Duster, which also adopts Renault and Nissan badges in various markets. It's from humble beginnings that the Romanian brand bought by Renault 16 years ago hopes to reinvent.
Volvo XC90 interior 1 photo
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Google, Volvo, Mercedes - the list of big companies developing autonomous cars could include Dacia as well. According to an interview with Nicolas Maure, the General Manager of Dacia Romania, the company is looking to hire engineers in the field of hybridization and autonomous driving.

Considering that up until a few years ago, Dacia models weren't even available with cruise control, the notion seems absurd. However, in a future where all cars have these capabilities, the company that offers them more cheaply has a lot to gain.

"We will continue to work on engineering and certain technologies in Romania. However, we will also change from mechanical aspects to new fields, such as navigation systems that are connected to the internet and hybrid systems that will eventually lead us to the creation of the first autonomous vehicles" Maure told Economica.

Early last month, Dacia announced it was looking for 120 young engineers to work at the Mioveni factory and the newly established Renault Technologie Roumanie. This test facility has been extremely busy this past summer, as both the Megane and Talisman underwent testing in Romania.

In addition, the company also wants to hire 270 students in other fields. One of their tasks is to change the way Dacia models are sold. We've already heard rumors that flagship showrooms are being considered, and now a high-tech approach is also in the cards.

It will undoubtedly be quite some time before Dacia can rival even what the Tesla Model S can do right now. We are also worried that by steering away from its core values, the Romanian company could lose its core business to Chinese automakers that have begun looking seriously at the Eurozone.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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