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The
company, which has raised $10.5 million in seed and Series A
funding from investors including Tier One supplier Bosch and
graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp, opened an office in Silicon
Valley.
AImotive is developing software that combines artificial
intelligence with a low-cost system for gathering information
about the conditions around a vehicle. A production version of
the system for enabling autonomous driving will be ready in two
years, executives said.
"If you just see the statistics, we will probably be an
acquisition," Chief Executive Officer Laszlo Kishonti told
Reuters.
In the highest-profile deal to date, General Motors Co <GM.N>
bought self-driving start-up Cruise Automation for $700 million
in May, sending a ripple effect through Silicon Valley's
fledgling autonomous vehicle technology companies.
"I think only a minority of (automakers) will be able to execute
this plan all alone," Kishonti said. "That's why specialists
like us who are hardware-agnostic and neutral to different
clients can help them with software technology."
Kishonti said AImotive, which plans to open offices in Japan and
China next year, used off-the-shelf components to keep costs
down. The company has grown from 15 engineers to 120 engineers
and researchers.
AImotive's system relies on six to 12 cameras in each vehicle
that cost about $15 apiece. In contrast, the original
laser-based Lidar sensor made by Velodyne that twirls atop
Alphabet Inc's <GOOGL.O> Google self-driving cars costs about
$75,000, although Lidar manufacturers are working to slash the
solid-state device's cost to about $100 by giving it fewer
moving parts.
Artificial intelligence, driven by faster and more powerful
chips, can also substitute for the high-definition,
three-dimensional maps that many in the industry say are a key
ingredient to allow a car to drive itself.
"If you wanted have the full United States in 3D, that would be
thousands of terabytes," Kishonti said. "I think it's not really
feasible to have a global product where the whole world is
stored in your trunk and needs to be updated."
(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
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