Connected and Autonomous Vehicles:
Overland AI Secures $10 Million in Funding
Overland AI has secured $10 million in seed funding, led by Point72 Ventures with participation from Shasta Ventures, Ascend VC, Pioneer Square Labs, Voyager Capital, and Cubit Capital. Overland AI’s plans to increase its workforce and increase development and testing of the company’s OverDrive software.
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OverDrive enables autonomous navigation of off-road terrain in any environmental conditions at speeds up to 45 mph, the company said. The U.S. Army and Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) recently awarded a $18.6 million ceiling prototype Other Transaction (OT) agreement to Overland AI to adapt its OverDrive technology to drive autonomous vehicles in contested areas/rough terrain, the company said.
Contact: Kristen Hoff, for Overland AI, (888) 317-4687, ext. 702, kristen@firecrackerpr.com.
🏛 Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Tech Isn’t ‘Just Around the Corner’ and Now Owners Can Sue Over It. “A judge has just rejected the Austin, Texas-based automaker’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit that the company misled owners – tricking them into believing their vehicles would soon have self-driving capabilities.”
🚘 Peugeot Is Trialing Driverless Tech — With a Twist — For Amazon-Style Deliveries. “French car giant Peugeot told CNBC it has partnered with German startup Vay to test the use of teledriving technology. Unlike self-driving cars — which can drive themselves without a human controlling the vehicle — teledriven cars are driven remotely by human operators.”
💰 Autonomous Shipping Startup Orca AI Tops up With $23M Led by OCV Partners and MizMaa Ventures. “The autonomous navigation market — where ships steer themselves guided by AI, resulting in fuel and time savings — is projected to grow from $4.46 billion in 2023 to $5.33 billion in 2024 alone. Orca AI is a London-based startup that claims to have powered the world’s first autonomous commercial ship voyage in congested waters. It’s now added $23 million in fresh funding, led by OCV Partners and MizMaa Ventures. The funding, which we’re told is between a Series A and Series B, takes its total raised to nearly $40 million.”
🤷♂️ On Self-Driving, Waymo Is Playing Chess While Tesla Plays Checkers. “We’ll know Tesla is serious about robotaxis when it starts hiring remote operators.”
🤔 Baidu Considers Using Tesla’s Robotaxi Tech In China. “The Google-esque tech company has been creating HD mapping of major Chinese cities, which means it can provide this mapping tech to companies to roll out their own self-driving products. That (among other things) is precisely why Tesla has partnered with Baidu for more advanced mapping needs as it seeks approval to launch its Full Self-Driving product in China.”
🚛 Volvo Teams up With Aurora To Reveal an Autonomous Semi Truck. “The truck is ‘purpose-designed and purpose-built’ to eventually enable mass production.”
🤞 Xpeng Rolls Out Ai-Powered OS With 2K Pure Vision ADAS, CEO Promises L4 Autonomous Driving by 2025. “XPeng says its new system enables autonomous driving with capabilities comparable to lidar but uses pure vision to create a granular 3D naked-eye experience.”
😮 Viral Video Shows Waymo Driverless Car in Phoenix Struggling To Stay In Its Lane: