Israel AV Mobility Newsletter — Nov.2020
By: Stav Shvartz
Tags: Innovation, Autonomous Vehicles, Mobility, Autotech, Israel

Israel AutoTech industry is back at full speed towards the end of the year with an amazing number of cross-border collaborations during November. This time not only with traditional markets but also a first investment by an Israeli VC at UAE mobility company! only several weeks since the peace agreement was signed between the countries. This fast movement is another proof of the pro-active spirit people have in Israel, moving quickly to grab any opportunity out there. Even during these challenging times, the sector is moving extremely fast, hope you keep up~ Enjoy reading.

Israel AV Mobility Newsletter — Nov. 2020

Nov. 1st: Smart helmet lock start-up Safe-On, won first place at the ITS Israel Accelerator virtual finals event. Safe-On developed a smart attached helmet locking device for e-scooters and e-bikes, which easily integrates with the different apps and does not require any power supply.

Nov. 4th: Developer of vision technologies for driver assistance systems, Foresight Autonomous Holdings Ltd. (פורסייט אוטונומס הולדינגס בע"מ) completes integration with NVIDIA platforms. Foresight integrated its QuadSight® stereoscopic obstacle detection software on the NVIDIA® Jetson AGX Xavier™ platform. The NVIDIA platform offers outstanding AI capabilities with big workstation performance in a small form factor and allows Foresight to perform fusion between its visible-light and infrared channels to generate an accurate depth map while reducing false alerts, making it suitable and ideal for use in autonomous vehicles and machines.

Nov. 8th: After partnering with road construction company Eurovia in October, Israeli wireless vehicle charging company ElectReon Wireless Ltd. (אלקטריאון) collaborates with Italian infrastructure company Societa’ di Progetto Brebemi S.p.A. and set to install wireless electric road system in Italy. Initially, ElectReon wireless road system will stretch on a 1km toll road and if the pilot will succeed, ElecReon will install its system along a 62km road and a total of approx. 150km including all lanes and additional adjoining sections. The potential of the entire project is estimated at $97.5M ($650,000 for the first 1km pilot road). ElectReon technology enables electric vehicle batteries to be charged by copper coils placed under the middle lane of the road.

Nov. 9th: Israeli drone fleet management and autonomous airspace control start-up High Lander (היילנדר), announced a $3 million Seed funding round. The Round was led by India’s leading tier 2 defensive engineering enterprise Paras Defence and Space Technologies and AGV Group. As part of the investment, High Lander also scores a strategic partnership with Paras Defence, which will assist High Lander with India’s regulations and will help develop market opportunities. High Lander end-to-end software-only autonomous drone fleets management solution adapts to all drones, enlisting them to be part of a coordinated, autonomous, and smart fleet. The solution tackles drone main issue of airtime and travel distance, by hot-swapping the UAVs, allowing complete continuity of operational fleets.

Nov. 9th: Smartphone distraction prevention start-up SaverOne (סייברוואן 2014 בע"מ) raises USD 6.6M institutional capital after doubling its value since IPO, evaluate its market value at USD 59M. The SaverOne technology offers an in-vehicle protection system designed to prevent accidents that result from texting while driving. The system prevents the driver from using texting applications while the vehicle is in motion using RF, machine learning, and signal processing.

Nov. 9th: Parking payment app Pango sells for USD 169M market value. Israel Infrastructure Fund (IIF), Harel Insurance Group and investor Tzvi Barak acquire 44% of Pango’s shares for USD 72.9M. IIF will hold 22.2% shares, Harel Insurance and Barak will hold together 22.2% of Pango’s shares. Pango provides mobile parking payment services around the country and generate income by deducting a small commission from parking fees and from added-value services. Today, Pango executes more than 3 million transactions every month in and has an estimated 2.2 million users.

Nov. 10th: Provider of AI-based solutions SafeRide Technologies(סייפרייד טכנולוגיות בע"מ) , launches vehicle health management platform - vInsight™. The deep-learning vehicle health management platform includes a VHM development tool and inference engines, targeted for in-vehicle and remote AI-based vehicle health monitoring, efficiently integrates in passenger and commercial vehicles. Recent advancements in autonomous driving, electrification and fuel efficiency, increase vehicle's diagnostics complexity. Therefore, SafeRide team finds deep learning technologies efficient for processing vehicle data and insights.

Nov. 10th: Waze CEO Noam Bardin will leave the company in early 2021. Bardin joined Waze 12 years ago and led it through its acquisition by Google in 2013. Today, the navigation app has over 130 million monthly active users and is active in more than 180 countries.

Nov. 11th: Electric platform start-up REE Automotive (REE אוטומוטיב), forms another strategic collaboration with global company Iochpe-Maxion, leader in the production of automotive wheels and automotive structural components in the Americas. The two will co-develop and manufacture an exclusive wheel design and chassis solution for REE's corner modules and EV platform. By incorporating Maxion's wheel and chassis design as well as its advanced materials experience into the system integration process, REE’s platform will weigh less and have more free space for alternative propulsion sources.

Nov. 11th: Israeli wireless connectivity and smart sensing technology company CEVA (סיווה), scores a deal with Japanese automotive semiconductor supplier Renesas. According to the agreement, CEVA’s technology will be integrated into Renesas’ new chip, designed for advanced driver assistance systems. Those systems are expected to be implemented in L2 and L3 autonomous vehicles of a major automaker in Japan. Among Renesas clients are Japanese automakers Toyota and Nissan. CEVA’s DSP-based solution is a key IP for processing and segmenting sensor data generated by sensors on vehicles and targets the most demanding sensor processing and AI workloads associated with vehicle’s complex systems.

Nov. 13th: French multinational engineering giant Egis Group and Israeli rail cyber security start-up Cylus סיילוס)), partners to form a Center of Excellence for advanced, rail-focused, cybersecurity services. The Center of Excellence will support rail companies in building cyber resiliency and securing critical networks and will offer a wide array of advanced security solutions to customers worldwide, such as development of strategy, identification of cyber risks etc.

Nov. 16th: “The Mobileye of motorcycles” start-up Ride Vision(רייד ויז'ן) , raised $7M in series A funding round. The round was led by investment platform OurCrowd with participation of YL Ventures, Mobilion VC and Metagal. Ride Vision develops an automated driver assistance system designed to prevent motorcycle collisions. Its computer vision and AI based Collision Aversion Technology (CAT) is integrated in motorcycles by utilizing only standard cameras as visual sensors.

Nov. 17th: Developer of verifying driver assistance and autonomous systems Foretellix (Foretellix Ltd.) teams up with the second-largest mobility supplier, Denso. The Japanese automotive conglomerate will use Foretellix Foretify platform, next generation ADAS & Highway solution to advance safety in its new products. Foretellix platform target to reduce significant development and testing costs as well as time, by identifying wide scenarios and unknowns early in the development cycle, reducing unnecessary recalls and utilizing proven coverage driven methodologies.

Nov. 17th: Computer vision and AI developer, Eyesight (Eyesight Technologies) and AI vision system-on-chip (SoC) supplier, Ambarella expand partnership for aftermarket fleet industry. Eyesight will integrate Ambarella's CV25 CVflow® processor in its upcoming aftermarket solution for fleets and Telematic Service Providers (TSPs). Eyesight focus on intelligent in-cabin sensing solution for the automotive industry that are designed to create safer and smarter drive experience.

Nov. 19th: Traffic management company Waycare (WayCare Technologies) partners with Volvo Cars. The partnership will enable data from Volvo’s Hazard Light Alert and Slippery Road Alert to be anonymously shared with transportation municipalities and the Waze navigation app. The Waycare AI platform access other data sources including city infrastructure, connected vehicles and weather forecasts data and able to synthesize it. The Data can provide operational insights and decision support to local U.S. transportation agencies and share with the Waze navigation app in areas where this feature has been enabled. From model year 2021, Hazard Light Alert and Slippery Road Alert will allow certain Volvo cars to communicate with each other and automatically alert other Volvo drivers via cloud-based network.

This Month, Waycare also launched a new project with Israeli government agency Ayalon Highways to manage busy highways during constructions. Ayalon Highways will integrate Waycare’s platform into its traffic management system, which will provide real time tools for traffic management and analysis on Israel’s busiest highway. The system will help to identify congestion, road accidents, stuck vehicles and road sections with high risk of accidents in order to optimize response.

Nov. 20th: Mobileye teams up with California-based LiDAR company Luminar (Luminar Technologies). Mobileye will use Luminar's LiDAR for its L4 on-demand Mobility-as-a-Service pilot AV fleet, planning to launch at several major cities around the world, including; Tel Aviv, Dubai, Paris, and Daegu. Luminar's sensing technology is based on a single 1550nm fiber laser and two-axis scanning mirrors with FoV of H:120°, V:30°enables both detection and classification of object up to 250 meters.

Nov. 24th: Israeli start-up Mobi (Mobility Insight) completed a $2 million seed round. The round was led by ExitValley’s crowdfunding platform, private investors and a converted loan. Mobi’s smart transportation management platform enables cities to manage and reduce traffic congestion on highways and urban roads. The AI-powered platform is built around vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, capable to seamlessly integrate into the networks of smart cities.

Nov. 24th: Israeli VC Maniv Mobility (מניב מוביליטי) invests in Abu Dhabi-based micro-mobility start-up Fenix. Maniv leads $3.8 million seed round investment in the scooter start-up, becoming the first Israeli VC to invest in a UAE-based tech company, since the normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE in September. Following the investment, Maniv founder, Michel Granoff will join the board of Fenix. Fenix will launch scooter service operations in Abu Dhabi in the next few weeks and plans to extend its service in the Middle East.

Nov 25th: Just weeks before its Tel Aviv Stock Exchange IPO, Internal combustion engine developer Aquarius (Aquarius Engines) raised $ 10 million from Piston manufacturer TPR. The company has also signed a partnership agreement with the Japanese giant to improve its Pistons performance using the Aquarius technology. With this current investment, Aquarius raised $37 million and plans to accelerate development and marketing processes of its tiny, green engine. Among its investors are Paz Group, importer of Scania in Israel, MAX, Mobileye's chief scientist, Dr. Gideon Stein, entrepreneur Marius Nacht and Japanese Musashi Seimitsu.

Nov. 26th: 4D imaging sensor, Vayyar Imaging (Vayyar Imaging Ltd.) wins prestigious CLEPA Safety Innovation Award. Vayyar Imaging won for its single-chip 4D imaging radar technology. Vayyar’s multifunctional in-car radar platform allows automakers to embrace the concept of the cabin as a unified ecosystem in which just one high-performance RFIC supports multiple applications, such as Child Presence Detection (CPD) and enhanced Seat Belt Reminders (SBR). Outside the car, just 2-4 sensors support nearly a dozen ADAS and advanced parking assistance applications. Vayyar’s approach is revolutionizing the way automotive industry addresses safety, from traditional “one sensor per function” paradigm to a multifunctional scale-ready platform.

Nov. 30th: Autonomous and ADAS system simulation software, Cognata Ltd. (קוגנטה) partners with South Korean LiDAR perception company, Seoul Robotics. Cognata will provide 3D point cloud synthetic data to enable Seoul Robotics to accelerate their LiDAR perception software technology. Cognata’s product allows autonomous vehicle manufacturers to test drive their artificial intelligence and sensors on its platform and enables the testing of multiple scenarios at different geographic locations.

Sources: Chiportal, Safe-On website, Businesswire, CTech, Geektime, Globes, TheMarker, PR Newswire, Bizportal, cylus.com, VentureBeat, Youtube, Luminartech, Calcalist, Automotive world, Start-up Nation Central, The Times of Israel, Volvo Cars