AI startup, SiMa.ai, has raised $70m to develop mature chip technology for autonomous vehicles in a funding round led by Maverick Capital.
The startup also announced a partnership with AV company BrightDrive to pair BrightDrive’s hardware with SiMa.ai’s machine learning system-on-chip (MLSoC) technology.
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SiMa.ai’s chips are designed to create safe AV technology as they will be used to detect the AV’s surroundings and potential obstacles. Both SiMa.ai and BrightDrive have stated that they intend to build AVs with levels 1 to 5 autonomy.
Level 1 autonomy refers to any cars that have a low level of self-driving and can be used to refer to vehicles that only have automated cruise control. Meanwhile level 5 refers to full automation without human intervention.
Having focused its technology on computer vision, SiMa.ai stated that its MLSoC software was the missing piece needed to achieve level 5 autonomy safely.
“This partnership marks the launch of the A-Sample of our advanced BrightDrive autonomous driving Platform, showcasing significant performance capabilities,” stated BrightDrive CEO Hossam Yahia.
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By GlobalDataIn its 2023 thematic intelligence report into AVs, research and analysis company GlobalData forecasts that by 2050 over 20,000 units of level 4+ AVs could be sold annually worldwide.
GlobalData suggests that initial deployment of level 4 and 5 AVs will be slow, partially due to legislation around the safety of AVs and consumer trust.
