Tata Nano at John Deere for Global Innovation Advisory Council Meeting

April 13, 2010

The past week involved a wild ride including 52 hours of driving over an 80 hour period.  It was well worth it as the Tata Nano was featured during a presentation on “frugal engineering” to the John Deere Global Technology and Innovation Advisory Council and at a media review for the Society of Automotive Engineers International in Pittsburgh, PA.

The Deere & Company event was very interesting as the council contains some of the most experienced and respected experts in the manufacturing industry including: Dave Swain (retired CTO and COO from The Boeing Company), Rodney Brooks (retired MIT professor of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Sciences), Hartmut Raffler (retired VP of Communications for Siemens), Marina Gortis (Executive Director of the Institute for the Future (IFTF), Howard Morgan, and Dr. V. Summantran (past Executive Director of Tata Motors).  The council has been investigating Frugal Engineering and welcomed Tata Technologies and the Nano warmly.

At the conclusion of the event, the Nano was loaded and we drove 10 hours to Pittsburgh, PA arriving about midnight.  The next day, we were hosted by the entire staff of SAE International as they had the opportunity to review the Nano and discuss it’s impact in both India and the world.

We finished up with the team at SAE and headed back to Denver.  28 hours later (and 4 hours of sleep in there somewhere) we arrived back home.  With the Harvard University event being postponed until the fall, we will be home with the Nano until Sunday evening the 18th when we depart for Las Vegas.