The simulation tech putting motorsports testing in the fast lane

The Times have released the following article:

Dynisma delivered its first motion generation simulators to the Ferrari Formula One team in 2021 and now makes an eight figure turnover.

British-made driving simulation technology is disrupting how new ideas are being tested in the automotive and motorsports industries, and could soon be applied to consumer virtual reality systems too.

Bristol-based Dynisma delivered its first motion generation simulators to the Ferrari Formula One team in 2021 and is now producing systems for other motorsports customers and automotive companies.

Each one sells for between £2 million and £9 million, and Dynisma’s founding team of five people has expanded to 65, with the business expecting to employ 100 people by this time next year.

Dynisma’s founder Ash Warne, 43, who used to work as a senior engineer for Ferrari and McLaren, said the business was riding the wave of digitisation sweeping industry.

“We are enabling more work that used to be done in the real world to be done virtually,” he said. “More and more people are understanding how much testing and development can be done virtually, rather than having to build more prototypes, cars, then fly them around the world to test them in different conditions.

“The physics is sufficiently well understood and it is possible to build mathematical models of most of these things, including the terrain and the vehicle itself and then to be able to carry out the majority of that testing virtually.”

Warne said that car makers were also using simulators to test how drivers and passengers interacted with vehicle controls and information systems. “One of the benefits of that is being able to bring products to market faster for our customers,” he added. “They can test these ideas before they even have designed it in detail. For example, a physical component like suspension, before a designer has worked out where all the linkages go [the car maker] can test it virtually in a simulator and give some target characteristics to the designer that has been found to be desirable in the simulator and design that in detail, retest it in the simulator, before finally committing it to manufacture.”

Dynisma, which makes an eight figure turnover and is profitable, has developed what is known as a low-latency, high-bandwidth motion generation system. The bandwidth is the amount of information you can put through the machine; latency is how long it takes for that information to materialise after you have asked for it.

Dynisma’s motion generator (DMG) technology and supporting software are packaged up with display units, which range from virtual reality or mixed reality headsets, through to projectors and LED walls. It also builds the bespoke vehicle chassis that the driver or passenger will sit in to the specifications provided by the car maker or motorsports team.

“Drawing an analogy from TV we are 4k compared to the standard definition. The amount of information that you get when you are in a vehicle from the road noise, vibrations … the real heart is the DMG machines,” said Warne.

Building Dynisma has not been a smooth ride, with their first project delivered during the lockdowns and amid the disruption to global supply chains, when lead times for key components went from “six to 12 weeks to 52 weeks”. But they made it through and now projects typically take 12 to 18 months for large simulators; six for smaller simulators. Delays can still occur because customers may also be building a site for the simulator, which can take time to prepare.

The value of the projects and timescales involved make it a difficult business to manage as it grew, admitted Warne. “It is a challenge to deliver these high value projects,” he said. “This business is very much built around large deals. We are shipping to motorsport and automotive customers. Some of our deals are up to £9 million, when you include the entire machine.”

Warne said he cannot name the other car makers that have visited his two demonstration suites in the last two years due to confidentiality agreements. “Anybody who is in the market for a driving simulator, we are probably talking to them already,” he said.

Warne’s original vision for the simulation technology was for it to be adopted in virtual reality entertainment, particularly out-of-home experiences such as VR arcades. “Every time I see a person who is on a motion simulator of some sort I believe the simulation they are undergoing is inadequate,” he said. “The machine they are on is not doing it right. There is an opportunity for our technology to displace all motion simulations, not just in motorsports and automotive.

“Anywhere there is ‘sim’ racing, esports, one day we could see our technology in there. Right now, we are focused on the professional, engineering-grade driving simulator market, but ultimately we want to keep developing the technology and widen access to it as much as we can.”

Having developed the initial concept for the technology himself, filing patents to protect the intellectual property, Warne said his advice to others looking to build ventures that will require them to bundle software and hardware together and work on big ticket projects is to first get the right team together.

He brought together people from his background in motorsports and said the team had been highly selective about who joined them, helped by the allure of working in motorsports technology and with the big names in the industry.

That same allure also aided Warne’s search for investors, and he secured an undisclosed round of investment from angel investors in 2019. “The only way you are going to be able to get there quickly enough and stay ahead of whatever else comes along is if you do go and get some initial capital,” he said.

“In our first year we had a team of five people working on developing our technology and there was no way I was going to be able to fund that out of my own pocket so that did require an investment round. After that we went and sold some projects.” It raised a second round of investment, for an undisclosed sum, in 2021 after delivering its first project.

Read the article on The Times website here.