In autonomous and self-driving vehicle news are Pony.ai, Behaviour AI & Cyngn.
Pony.ai Partners with Horizon Robotics
Pony.ai has entered a strategic partnership with Horizon Robotics to develop high-performance, cost-effective smart driving solutions. The partnership combines Pony.ai’s industry-leading L2++ smart driving solution with Horizon Robotics’ Journey® series auto-grade processors to provide smart driving solutions for series production vehicles. Pony.ai’s Journey® processor-based comprehensive solution for customers will offer the greatest flexibility for OEMs in response to market demand.
Based on Pony.ai’s experience driving over 12 million autonomous miles across a variety of dense and complex urban roads and highways, Pony.ai launched a highway Navigate on Autopilot (NOA) solution based on a single-Journey® 5 computing platform. The prototype vehicle equipped with the Journey® 5 processor completed highway NOA road tests in China in 2022 and is expected to be series production-ready by Q2 2023. Another solution, to enable a city and urban NOA experience with a dual-Journey® 5 computing platform, is expected to go to market this year.
With as few as six cameras and one millimeter wave radar and by using a single Journey® 5 processor, Pony.ai has created an all-in-one high-performance, cost-effective solution without a reliance on HD maps. Based on years of accumulating complex scene processing, and by considering the interaction between driving vehicles and their surroundings, the highway NOA function can intelligently navigate in congested situations.
“After years of iterative product development, the autonomous driving industry is approaching the era of mass commercialization. We are very excited to join hands with such an excellent partner as Horizon Robotics to create a smart driving ecosystem and to bring high-performance, cost-effective localized smart driving product solutions to our customers,” said Dr. James Peng, co-founder and CEO of Pony.ai.
“With the evolution of smart driving, the automobile supply chain has accelerated the change from a vertical integration model to a decentralized and interconnected network of suppliers. Horizon Robotics is dedicated to collaborating with upstream and downstream partners to promote the industrial transformation. As our strategic partner and a leader in the autonomous driving industry, Pony.ai has made tremendous progress in developing and deploying smart driving solutions based on Journey® 5 and its software platform. We look forward to our partnership together, to empower OEMs and bring a safer and more enjoyable smart driving experience to our customers,” said Dr. Kai Yu, founder and CEO of Horizon Robotics.
Pony.ai started its L2++ smart driving effort in 2020 and established a dedicated POV (personally owned vehicles) business unit for mass produced intelligent vehicles in 2022. By building solutions based on Horizon Robotics’ Journey® 5 platform, Pony.ai will combine upstream and downstream value chain partners to form a smart driving ecosystem with deep integration, efficient collaboration, and mass production, providing OEM customers with flexible and convenient smart driving options.
Behaviour AI Now with Microsoft Connected Fleets
The London-based software developer will enhance its Behaviour AI predictive technology by integration with Microsoft Connected Fleets reference architecture, which will enable customers to make better-informed decisions, reduce costs and improve efficiency with its layer of human context.
Humanising Autonomy announced their collaboration with Microsoft to enhance offerings for fleet management services, enabling better-informed decisions, reduced costs and improved efficiency with its layer of human context.
Humanising Autonomy offers ethical computer-vision software that understands, predicts, and interprets human behaviour to quickly, safely and accurately provide the context between people and machines, whether a vehicle, a traffic control, connected device, or any other automated machine. By connecting to an existing camera platform or by accessing video footage, the U.K.-based tech firm provides actionable data and insights that businesses can use when making operational, logistical and safety decisions for their fleets.
Microsoft Connected Fleets reference architecture enables an ecosystem of partners and partner solutions for fleet management by simplifying specialized analytics, value extraction from vehicle data, and streamlining integration with business systems.
Humanising Autonomy’s integration with Microsoft Connected Fleets reference architecture will enable faster integration with customer-specific requirements and simplify the delivery of advanced analytics, speeding time-to-insight.
Cyngn Working with Jtec
–Cyngn Inc. (the “Company” or “Cyngn”) (NASDAQ: CYN), the industrial autonomous vehicle company, announced that it is working alongside Jtec Industries, the leading manufacturer of material handling carts. For end users, the collaboration will bring a sophisticated cart system to its autonomous vehicle deployments. For Cyngn and Jtec, the collaboration will lead to additional revenue opportunities.
Jtec’s CarryMore Cart consists of two parts. The “mother” remains attached to the autonomous vehicle at all times, while the “daughter” can be moved around and loaded with goods. Once loaded, workers lock the daughter cart into the mother and send the vehicle on its way.
“We’re pleased to be promoting Jtec’s CarryMore Mother/Daughter Cart to give our autonomous vehicle customers more options for getting work done,” said Cyngn’s CEO Lior Tal. “Our vehicles are able to tow heavy loads that are often required in manufacturing facilities and other operations that move materials on pallets that would be impossible with most AGVs and AMRs. It’s a natural fit for vehicles that tow cargo to cross-sell carts.”
Already, the alliance is having an impact. Recently, Cyngn announced a new deployment at the leather care products manufacturer, U.S. Continental Packaging. The California-based facility plans to use Cyngn’s DriveMod-enabled Stockchaser with Jtec’s CarryMax Carts in tow.
For Jtec, the relationship is an opportunity to position itself with an excellent future-facing autonomous vehicle company. “Cyngn has brought an effective autonomous industrial vehicle solution that complements our products very well, and we’re excited to work with them on another deployment,” added Ty Overcash, Jtec’s Director of Automation. “We worked closely with U.S. Continental Packaging to evaluate their material handling needs and have customized the perfect cart for their use case. This opportunity is a great fit for Jtec and Cyngn.”
Jtec’s cart system flexibility is just one of the many benefits to bringing autonomous capabilities to material handling vehicles like the Stockchaser. Another, of course, is the Stockchaser’s impressive towing capacity.
“A high towing capacity means that our autonomous vehicle solutions work in more places,” explained Tal. “Our customers are able to use these deployments to move massive pieces of equipment and heavier loads to support their manufacturing processes in ways that would be impossible with plastic AGVs.”