Nikhil is currently an Innovation Project Manager at Renault-Nissan in Silicon Valley. Still true to his design research experience, his approach to collaborations with academia and beyond is user-centered, human factors oriented and empirical research driven. His favorite project right now is a Chatbot for Wellbeing being developed at the Human Computer Interaction lab at Stanford.

Nikhil also holds a part time position as an Associate Researcher at NASA AMES in California, where he helps the Fatigue Counter Measures Group build simulations for land-based-autonomy research. The work he and his team do feeds NASA’s future missions to put humans on Mars.

He is inspired by the arts and looks to Japanese Anime and the Gaming World for inspiration for novel Automotive HMI.

Renault Innovation Silicon Valley, based in Sunnyvale, California, aims to identify, select and foster the most promising innovations in the automotive industry. As one of the largest car manufacturers in Europe, Renault is dedicated to driving innovation, imagining the car of the future, and shaping sustainable mobility. Located minutes from leading hardware and software companies, our Silicon Valley office is geared to capitalize on the region’s world-class engineering talent and stay ahead of trends that are reshaping the way people interact with their cars. Renault’s main foci are on autonomous and assisted driving, zero-emission vehicles, and connected cars. Our unique office in Sunnyvale, California is a direct result of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, which shares a collective goal of expanded presence in Silicon Valley. In a shared facility with Nissan, RISV houses an advanced research center specializing in connected services, autonomous driving, and new businesses in mobility and advanced user experience. Renault aims to learn from and actively contribute to the Silicon Valley start-up ecosystem by launching several partnerships with start-ups, universities, and labs each year. We support our affiliates in many ways to co-develop new research topics, use cases, and products. The Renault group has been making cars since 1898. Today it is an international multi-brand group, selling more than 2.7 million vehicles in 125 countries in 2014, with 36 manufacturing sites, and employing more than 117,000 people.