GM invests in Oculii, a manufacturer of radar software for vehicles with automatic driving

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 13 (Reuters) – General Motors Co.’s (GM.N) venture capital arm has invested millions of dollars in Oculii, a US startup software maker for radar sensors. used in autonomous cars, the co-founder of Oculii, Steven Hong said.

GM may use Oculii’s low-cost software to increase radar resolution and expand partially automated vehicles and fully autonomous vehicles, he told Reuters in an interview.

The investment is a “fantastic signal that they are serious about technology and radar in general,” said Stanford University graduate who founded Oculii with his father, Lang Hong, a professor of engineering at State University. of Wright.

He declined to disclose the financial details.

Tesla Inc. (TSLA.O) has removed radar sensors from its volume models this year, reactivating questions about the safety and performance of its advanced driver assistance system.

Radars, which measure the distance between objects, allow a car to accelerate or brake to match its speed with that of the vehicle in front. Radars also work well in light and adverse weather conditions. Read more

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has defined the additional sensors as lidars and “crutch” radars, duplicating cheaper cameras and artificial intelligence for its driving automation system.

Hong said he agreed with Tesla’s director of artificial intelligence’s comments, Andrej Karpathy, about the shortcomings of traditional radars. Karpathy said in June that radars sometimes make “dumb” measurements of the environment, slowing down their vision system.

“Traditional radar has a very low resolution and very noisy,” Hong said. But high-resolution radars are a key backup for cameras and other sensors when they fail, providing “additional security,” he added.

He said he expected Tesla to embrace radars as prices drop.

“He’s going to be a no smarter,” Hong said.

Hyunjoo Jin Reports; Edited by Richard Chang

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