Autonomous vehicle software company PolySync has been selected as the winning entrant in the 2016’s Top Ten Automotive Startups competition, part of the AutoMobility LA event, which is formed by the merger of LA Auto Show’s Connected Car Expo and its Press & Trade Days.
Chosen from more than 100 applicants to make the 2016 Top Ten Automotive Startup List, PolySync was named one of the three finalists in October.
Portland, Oregon-based PolySync, along with Argus Cyber Security from Tel Aviv, Israel, and EverCharge from Emeryville, California, received a live mentoring session from renowned Silicon Valley investor, Bill Tai, at AutoMobility LA.
The Top Ten finalists were selected by the AutoMobility LA Advisory Board, which comprises senior executives from Aeris Communications, Elektrobit, Ellis and Associates, General Electric, Google, Itron, Local Motors, Lyft, Nokia Growth Partners, Nvidia, Pandora, and Strategy Analytics.
PolySync was chosen for developing an operating system that helps simplify and accelerate the development, testing, and implementation of autonomous driving technologies. As the overall winner of the 2016 Top Ten Startups Competition, the startup will have the one-of-a-kind opportunity to attend the final celebration of the 2017 Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC), a world-renowned startup technology competition that takes place on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands. At the competition, PolySync will have the opportunity to interact with members of the Extreme Tech Challenge team, finalists, sponsors and judges, including Sir Richard Branson, the island’s owner.
PolySync’s open source platform enables complete ‘drive-by-wire’ control and provides the foundation for the rapid development of autonomous vehicles. After working with some of the world’s most advanced autonomous driving teams, PolySync realized that they spent lots of effort on building and testing the back end infrastructure, leaving less time and energy for the advanced algorithms that make the systems work. As autonomous systems rely on high bandwidth communications and high performance computing, the startup built its platform on top of OMG’s Data Distribution Service, a publisher/subscriber middleware used on military UAVs, financial trading engines, and public infrastructure. PolySync applications are hardware agnostic, decoupling code from any sensors, lidar, cameras, computers, and actuators. The platform is being used in the University of Michigan’s open access research vehicles.
“With autonomous vehicles having a growing presence in our everyday lives, it is imperative to have a reliable platform that will help car manufacturers build, test and deploy safe, driverless vehicles,” said AutoMobility LA president and CEO Lisa Kaz. “PolySync’s proprietary operating system was incredibly impressive, and we all look forward to seeing how the company will contribute to the future of transportation in what is sure to be a meaningful way.”
AutoMobility LA mentor and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Bill Tai (right) commented, “It’s been inspiring to get to know and provide guidance to some very creative, innovative and motivated companies as a part of this year’s Top Ten Automotive Startups competition. We’re excited to see PolySync take off and explore the new horizons of autonomous driving.”
