Highlights:
- The Advanced Driver Assistance System, or ADAS, is designed for vehicles with partially autonomous driving features, including automated parking.
- Automating the workflow empowers an automaker’s software teams to generate more simulations, making detecting a broader range of potential malfunctions practical.
Foretellix Ltd., a simulation automation startup, has raised USD 42 million from investors to expand its software adoption further in the auto sector.
The recent investment was spearheaded by 83North, serving as an extension to the Series C round initially revealed by Foretellix in May. In addition, the round saw participation from Nvidia Corp. and various significant players within the automotive sector. Participants included Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., commercial vehicle manufacturer Isuzu Motors Ltd., and Volvo Car AB.
Foretellix offers a software platform to assist automakers and their suppliers in developing autonomous vehicles. The versatile platform supports ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) projects. ADAS is a device designed for vehicles that provide partially autonomous driving features, including automated parking.
Automakers must ensure their safety through rigorous verification before introducing a partially or fully autonomous vehicle. To achieve this, they develop software environments containing virtual roads with simulated pedestrians, cars, and traffic signs. They use these simulations to test their autonomous driving systems and identify scenarios where malfunctions may occur.
Foretellix offers Foretify, a software platform designed to streamline vehicle safety testing. The platform incorporates a programming language enabling automakers’ developers to specify the simulations they want to conduct. Utilizing this code, Foretify autonomously generates millions of vehicle simulations, each featuring distinct road and driving conditions.
By automating simulation generation, developers save time and enhance the depth of safety testing for their autonomous driving software. Manual simulation creation by developers may inadvertently overlook crucial driving situations, leaving potential safety issues unaddressed. Automating the workflow empowers an automaker’s software teams to generate more simulations, making detecting a broader range of potential malfunctions practical.
Foretellix offers various productivity features to streamline the work of developers. In its Foretify platform, software teams can preview a simulation to check for issues before running it. In case an error slips into the simulation, a built-in debugging tool powered by artificial intelligence assists in pinpointing the source of the malfunction.
Car manufacturers assess the safety of their vehicles through a combination of simulated and real-world test drives. When a vehicle encounters a potential safety concern during a real-world test, engineers frequently aim to recreate the event in a simulation environment to gather supplementary technical data. Foretify can generate numerous simulated variations of a real-world test, each incorporating slight variations in conditions, to facilitate safety testing initiatives.
“Our solutions address the largest barriers to safe large-scale deployment of autonomous vehicles while dramatically reducing development costs,” stated Ziv Binyamini, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Foretellix. “This funding round will secure our long-term sustained growth.”
Foretellix plans to utilize the funding from the round to enhance the feature set of Foretify further. The company has highlighted that the development efforts will mainly focus on incorporating additional generative AI capabilities. A portion of the funding is earmarked for expanding Foretellix’s workforce.