Apple收购Drive.ai作为自动驾驶汽车戏剧继续

Drive.ai had sputtered to a halt. The startup, which developed artificial intelligence for autonomous vehicles, recently laid off its staff in Mountain View, Calif., and Plano, Texas. This week, Apple Inc. rode to the rescue, acquiring Drive.ai and hiring many of its former engineers.

For all of the hype and资金围绕自动驾驶汽车，很容易忘记开发完全自动驾驶汽车以及该领域的竞争力的挑战。

强劲的开始后拉过

Drive.ai成立于2015年，并从事套件，为现有车辆增添了自主权。它使用了深度学习并建立了中间件for simulationthat is hoped would lead to a “brain” for self-driving vehicles.

Drive.ai在两年前的B系列比赛中估值2亿美元，阿克斯说。去年，驾驶。但是，该公司一直在looking for a buyer自今年年初以来，据报道旋转首席执行官。

和consumer robotics，业务可能已经挣扎了，但是知识产权and worker expertise were still valuable. Apple has “acqui-hired” data, systems, and software engineers, among other former Drive.ai employees,说旧金山纪事。

苹果autonomous shuttle project, dubbed “Palo Alto to Infinite Loop” or PAIL, was intended to link its offices in Silicon Valley.

Apple has hired former Drive.ai engineers. Source: Drive.ai

Driverless companies vie for pole position

The Drive.ai purchase demonstrates that Apple doesn’t want to be left in the dust behind other big technology companies such as Waymo LLC and Uber Technologies Inc., despite关闭“泰坦项目”在一月。关于苹果对驱动的兴趣的谣言。几周前，即使后一家公司正在关闭，也是如此。

The California Department of Motor Vehicleshad found that苹果和优步在“每次脱离英里”方面远远落后于Google衍生产品，这是自动驾驶安全的评级。

Waymo最近提供了激光雷达传感器对于非竞争者来说，随着辩论继续lidar,雷达, and/or视觉系统are best for driverless navigation and安全。

Also, Waymo last weekpartnered withGroupe Renault and Nissan Motor Co. to “research commercial, legal, and regulatory issues related to driverless transportation-as-a-service offerings in France and Japan.”

无论是通过合作伙伴关系，收购还是直接投资，都不要计算出传统的汽车制造商自动驾驶车辆。上个月，通用汽车的邮轮部门raised $1.15 billion, and Toyota AI Ventures announced itssecond $100 million mobility startup fund。

More merging into driverless traffic

Meanwhile, Uber this week acquiredMighty AI Inc.for an undisclosed amount. Seattle-based Mighty AI said it “labels data at scale” for training autonomous vehicles, robots, and other systems.

此外，Starsky Roboticsbegan testing driverless trucks in Florida. The San Francisco-based companyraised $16.5 millionin a Series A round in March.

Unlike competitors such as艾克或者TuSimple, whose driverless trials still include human safety drivers, Starsky Robotics依靠on remote operators.

机器人报告将继续监视交易, technology advances, and consolidation in自动驾驶汽车。