How Smaller Tech Companies are Advancing Toward AI in Automobiles
By: Jodie Cai
Tags: Autonomous Cars, Autonomous Vehicles, Artificial Intelligence, Self Driving Cars, Tech

We live in an era of exciting technological innovation, from facial recognition programming to quantum supremacy. In the last 50 years, our world has experienced the introduction of many new technologies that have revolutionized the way we live. Big tech companies like Tesla, SpaceX, NVIDIA, and SenseTime are at the forefront of this technological revolution. Throughout the last half-century, one of the largest and most debated new technologies is artificial intelligence, and more recently, artificial intelligence in automobiles.

Photo from nuTonomy

Big tech companies, such as Tesla, are often brought up when this topic of AI in automobiles is raised. However, many small start-ups are advancing in artificial intelligence automobiles as well, a few being nuTonomy, Autox, Optimus Ride, and Waymo. Many of these companies have already begun testing on roads. Take nuTonomy, for example. NuTonomy’s product is nuCore, aiming to provide fleets of autonomous cars that will result in safer roads, less traffic, and less pollution. The impact is already widespread: they have partnered with Group PSA, owner of European car brand Peugeot SA, to bring self-driving SUVs to Singapore. They even collaborated with Lyft to test their vehicles on the roads of Boston here in the United States.

Not all companies aim to satisfy a large audience on a worldwide scale. For example, Optimus Ride, an AI company branched off of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has a target audience of campus students and their surrounding community. In May of 2020, they teamed up with, The Yards, to launch a food delivery service by delivering “One Week” meal boxes containing 3 meals per day. Using their autonomous cars, they were able to aid families that were struggling with food insecurity amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Optimus Ride takes a different approach to automation. It only drives on areas it has mapped or ‘geofenced’. Currently, Optimus Ride runs fleets of self-driving vehicles in the Seaport area of Boston, in a mixed-use development in South Weymouth and recently in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the first self-driving vehicle program in the state.

Other start-ups like Carvi and Nauto aren’t looking to test and launch automated vehicles; instead, they are looking to manufacture and implement software programming that will improve the safety of our roads. Using ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System), these technologies can alter bad driving habits, send real-time alerts to warn drivers of possible dangers, and offer feedback in response to your driving. Their goal is to subtly coach their users into becoming better drivers in order to improve the safety of our roads.

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence will impact our future. In fact, it is already upon us. With these innovations, we can build safer communities — for us, for our friends, our families, our neighbors, our world.

Sources:

Schroer, Alyssa. “Artificial Intelligence in Cars Powers an AI Revolution in the Auto Industry.” Built In, 19 Dec. 2019, builtin.com/artificial-intelligence/artificial-intelligence-automotive-industry.

“The Yards to Deliver 5,000 Free Meals Prepared by Bluejacket with Optimus Ride Autonomous Vehicles to DC Families In Need.” Optimus Ride, 28 May 2020, www.optimusride.com/press/the-yards-washington-dc.

Winn, Zach. “Optimus Ride’s Autonomous System Makes Self-Driving Vehicles a Reality.” MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT News, 9 Aug. 2019, news.mit.edu/2019/optimus-ride-self-driving-0809.