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aiMotive

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aiMotive
FormerlyAdasWorks
IndustryAutomotive technology
Founded2015 in Budapest, Hungary
FounderLászló Kishonti
Headquarters
Budapest
,
Hungary
Key people
  • László Kishonti (CEO)[1]
Number of employees
220 (2020)[2]
Parent
  • Independent (2015–22)
  • Stellantis (2022–present)
Websiteaimotive.com

aiMotive (formerly AdasWorks) is an autonomous vehicle technology company.[3][4][5][6][7] The company aims to work with automotive manufacturers and Tier1s to enable automated technologies.[8] aiMotive describes its approach as "vision-first", a system that primarily relies on cameras and artificial intelligence to detect its surroundings.[9][10][11][12][13][14] The technology is designed to be implemented by automobile manufacturers to create autonomous vehicles, which can operate in all conditions and locations.[3][4][7][15] In September 2017, PSA Group teamed up with AImotive.[16][17]

On December 22, 2022, the company was acquired by the multinational automotive manufacturing corporation, Stellantis.[18]

History

[edit]
Two aiMotive prototypes during testing.
Two aiMotive prototypes during testing

The company was founded in Budapest, Hungary as AdasWorks by Laszlo Kishonti in 2015.[4] aiMotive is a spin-off of the founder's previous company, Kishonti Ltd, which was a computer hardware benchmarking company.[19][20] In November 2016, the company changed its name to aiMotive.[6][21]

Two aiMotive prototypes at the ZalaZone proving ground
Two aiMotive prototypes at the ZalaZone proving ground

The company has closed four venture capital investment rounds. The first investment round of $2,500,000 was announced on 15 May 2015 and was led by Inventure Oy.[22] In a second round of funding the company received $10.5 million in funding from Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Draper Associates, Nvidia, Tamares Group and others.[4][20] On 4 January 2018 aiMotive announced a Series C round of $38 million funded by investors B Capital Group, Prime Ventures and others.[23][24] This round made aiMotive the second largest Hungarian-based startup based on venture capital investment.[25] In May 2020 the company announced a fourth investment round of US$20 million. The injection was led by earlier investors.[8] AImotive outlined plans to expand with offices in Detroit (Michigan, US) and Munich (Germany).[26]

aiMotive first created a prototype which it tested on the Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix track, Hungaroring.[27]

The company received its first public road test license in Finland in spring 2017.[6] aiMotive has similar test licenses in Hungary, the State of California,[19][28] and the State of Nevada. As of January 2018, the company tests its technology on Toyota,[11][14][29] Citroen[10][30] and Volvo[31] models. The company's headquarters remained in Hungary. aiMotive has offices in Mountain View, California[4][5][9] and Yokohama Japan.[14]

An aiMotive prototype Toyota Camry in front of the Golden Gate bridge.
An aiMotive prototype Toyota Camry in front of the Golden Gate bridge

In 2016 Nvidia confirmed it was working with aiMotive (AdasWorks at the time) and Volvo within the DriveMe project.[31] In September 2017 aiMotive and PSA Groupe announced a partnership to develop a highway autopilot.[10][30][32][33] The same year aiMotive announced it was developing an artificial intelligence accelerator, branded as aiWare. aiMotive partnered with VeriSilicon and GlobalFoundries to create test chips of the architecture for use in its prototypes.[19][34] At the Consumer Electronics Show 2018 the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center announced its DRVLINE platform in which aiMotive is listed as a software technology partner.[35]

The South Korean fabless semiconductor company, Nextchip has licensed aiWare for their Apache5[36] and Apache6[37] automotive domain processors.

aiMotive was listed as a partner of Sony's Vision-S concept car at CES 2021.[38] The company subsequently announced it was creating L2+ automated driving systems for the concept vehicle.[39]

In November 2022, it was announced aiMotive had been acquired by the multinational automotive manufacturing corporation, Stellantis.[40] The acquisition was completed in December 2022.

Technology

[edit]

aiMotive is developing three branches of technology connected to autonomous vehicles. aiDrive is a software stack for automated driving. aiSim is a virtual simulation environment, and aiWare, a silicon IP for chips that compute artificial intelligence.[29][34]

aiDrive utilizes artificial intelligence and data from cameras and other sensors.[29] aiMotive focuses on processing visual information, this approach is similar to that of Tesla,[41] which some industry experts consider risky.[42] The company tests its technology on highways in the United States and Europe.[11][29][42]

A street view created by aiMotive's ISO26262 certified, ASIL-D simulator, aiSim
A street view created by aiMotive's ISO26262 certified, ASIL-D simulator, aiSim

aiSim is a virtual simulation environment for testing autonomous vehicles.[29] In spring 2020 aiMotive announced that the simulator had received ISO 26262 tool certification to TCL3.[43]

The hardware architecture by aiMotive is a dedicated embedded artificial intelligence accelerator optimized for but not limited to computer vision with high-resolution input.[6][44] In 2020 the company announced that it was collaborating with Hungarian space technology startup C3S to create neural network acceleration platforms for applications in space.[45] aiWare has also been integrated into NextChip's Apache5 imaging edge processor for automotive applications.[2]

[edit]

aiMotive was featured on the British television show Guy Martin vs The Robot Car which aired on 26 November 2017. In the show, British motorcycle racer and television personality Guy Martin visits the company's headquarters and participates in a test drive on a Hungarian Motorway.[46]

In December 2020, aiMotive CEO, László Kishonti participated in an online international panel discussion about the future of artificial intelligence with renowned researchers such as Neil deGrasse Tyson, Stuart J. Russell, George Tilesch, and György Buzsáki.[47]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Higgins, Tim. "Driver's Ed: Startup Uses Video Games to Teach Cars to Drive themselves". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  2. ^ a b Dahad, Nitin (June 23, 2020). "Budapest Automated Driving Software Firm Raises $20m". EE Times Europe. Retrieved March 10, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Kite-Powell, Jennifer (November 30, 2016). "This Start Up Uses AI and Cameras To Create New Autonomous Driving Platform". Forbes. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  4. ^ a b c d e Etherington, Darrell (November 15, 2016). "Fully Autonomous AI Driving Company AImotive Expands to the US". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
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  7. ^ a b Collie, Scott (November 14, 2016). "AImotive develops "worldwide any weather" self-driving software". New Atlas. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  8. ^ a b Gillet, Kit (June 22, 2020). "AImotive raises $20m to become Europe's 'largest VC-backed automated driving company'". Sifted. Retrieved 2021-02-26.
  9. ^ a b "Autonomous vehicle tech company AImotive positions itself for sale". Economic Times. November 14, 2016. Archived from the original on May 7, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  10. ^ a b c Burke, Katie (September 6, 2017). "PSA partners with AI startup for self-driving pilot". Autonews. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  11. ^ a b c Bates-Ramirez, Vanessa (December 18, 2017). "This Self-Driving AI is Learning to Drive Almost Entirely in a Virtual World". Singularity Hub. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  12. ^ Mukherjee, Sharmistha (March 6, 2017). "Here's how AImotive is making systems for driverless cars inexpensive". Techseen. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  13. ^ Stumpf, Rob (May 15, 2017). "Software Company AImotive working to create affordable lidar alternative". The Drive. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
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  17. ^ King, Alanis. "Here's How Volkswagen Aims To Sell Its Earliest And Dirtiest Cheating Diesels". Jalopnik. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
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  21. ^ Crowe, Steve (November 14, 2016). "AImotive aiDrive Level 5 Self-Driving Car Comes to US". Robotics Trends. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  22. ^ "Automotive and AI startup AdasWorks closes $2.5 million Seria A round" (Press release). Day One Capital. July 29, 2015. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  23. ^ "AImotive, leading provider of camera-first autonomous driving technology, raises $38 million USD Series C" (Press release). Budapest, Hungary & Mountain View, California: AImotive. January 4, 2018. Retrieved January 23, 2018.
  24. ^ Takahashi, Dean (January 4, 2018). "AImotive raises $38 million for self-driving car software". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  25. ^ Zsiborás, Gergő (January 4, 2018). "Rég láttunk ilyet; 10 milliárdos befektetés a magyar autós startupnak [We haven't seen anything like this in a while: 10 billion HUF investment for the Hungarian Automotive Startup]". Forbes.hu.
  26. ^ Bolduc, Douglas A. (June 22, 2020). "PSA driver-assist tech supplier to expand to Munich, Detroit". Automotive News Europe. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  27. ^ Gere, Tamás (January 25, 2015). "Vezető nélkül körözött egy Mercedes a Hungaroringen [A Mercedes laps the Hungaroring without a driver]". Autonavigator.hu. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
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  29. ^ a b c d e Tara, Roopinder (December 13, 2017). "Hands Off the Wheel at 65mph - And Alive to Tell About It". Engineering.com. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
  30. ^ a b Etherington, Darrell (September 6, 2017). "PSA Group and aiMotive team up for French self-driving pilot". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  31. ^ a b "Automotive Innovators Motoring to NVIDIA DRIVE | NVIDIA Blog". The Official NVIDIA Blog. January 4, 2016. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
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  33. ^ Crosse, Jesse (September 6, 2017). "PSA Pushes for autonomous future with AI tech firm partnership". Autocar.co.uk. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  34. ^ a b "AImotive Expands Into Silicon IP for Deep Learning Inference Acceleration | Berkeley Design Technology, Inc". www.bdti.com. July 27, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  35. ^ "Samsung Reveals DRVLINE Platform, Takes Bold Step Toward Autonomous Future - Samsung Newsroom". Samsung Newsroom. January 8, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  36. ^ Clarke, Peter (October 14, 2019). "AImotive licenses neural network IP to NextChip". eeNews. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  37. ^ Flaherty, Nick (November 3, 2021). "Nextchip licenses aiWare4 for automotive AI processor". eeNews Europe. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  38. ^ Metz, Axel (January 21, 2020). "CES 2021: Here's a better look at Sony's Vision-S electric car". TechRadar. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  39. ^ Brown, Péter (January 13, 2021). "CES 2021: AImotive and Sony team to advance software in self-driving cars". electronics360.globalspec.com. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  40. ^ Hammerschmidt, Christoph (2022-11-17). "Stellantis acquires AI startup aiMotive". EENewsEurope. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  41. ^ Hawkins, Andrew J. (February 7, 2018). "Elon Musk still doesn't think LIDAR is necessary for fully driverless cars". The Verge. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  42. ^ a b Wolverton, Troy (December 12, 2017). "A Hungarian startup thinks it has the key to cheaper self-driving cars – but a ride in its test car suggests it has a lot of work ahead". Business Insider. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
  43. ^ Tyler, Niel (January 8, 2020). "AImotive accelerates automated driving with first ISO 26262 certified simulator". www.newelectronics.co.uk. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  44. ^ Morris, John (October 20, 2017). "Vision is the next big challenge for chips". ZDNet. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  45. ^ Etherlington, Darrell (July 7, 2020). "Autonomous driving startup turns its AI expertise to space for automated satellite operation". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  46. ^ Butcher, David. "Review: Guy Martin vs The Robot Car". Radio Times. Archived from the original on January 24, 2018. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
  47. ^ Nagy, Nikoletta (December 2, 2020). "Nem a gépektől, hanem az emberektől kell tartanunk". 24.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved February 26, 2021.
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