author: FutureCar Staff
Silicon Valley startup DeepMap, a provider of high-definition (HD) mapping and localization technology for autonomous vehicles, has announced licensing deals with San Francisco-based mobility platform provider Ridecell and Sweden-based Einride. As part of the deal, Ridecell and Einride will integrate DeepMap’s HD mapping software in their autonomous fleets.
DeepMap was founded in 2016 by James Wu and Mark Wheeler and is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., with additional offices in Beijing, China. The company specializes in fusing images from digital cameras with data collected using LiDAR to build its highly detailed 3D maps. These maps are used by autonomous vehicles to navigate and localize.
Before co-founding DeepMap, Wu led the engineering efforts building the serving infrastructure of Google Earth and also helped launch Apple Maps. Wu also served as principal architect for Baidu’s self-driving platform now called Apollo.
“The visionary teams at Einride and Ridecell are pushing the industry forward and we are delighted to work closely with them. We are particularly excited about helping our self-driving partners accelerate their fleet deployments at multiple locations and for different vehicle models.” said James Wu, CEO and Co-Founder of DeepMap.
San Francisco-based Ridecell provides a complete enterprise platform for carsharing, ridesharing, and autonomous ride-hailing services. The platform allows autonomous mobility providers to manage their entire fleets.
In 2017, Ridecell acquired Auro Robotics, which is now Ridecell’s self-driving car division. DeepMap’s software will be integrated into Auro’s self-driving vehicle technology.
“DeepMap provides best-in-class mapping software features, helping Auro reduce its AV deployment time and effort at complex and remote sites. We look forward to working with DeepMap as we continue to enhance our autonomous offering.” said Srinivas Reddy Aellala, co-founder of Auro Robotics and Principal Product at Ridecell.
Einride, which is based in Stockholm, develops fully-electric autonomous vehicles for freight transport. The company has two vehicle models the T-pod, designed to transport pallets, and the T-log, designed for the lumber industry to transport logs. The vehicles are fully autonomous and have no driver’s cab. Both vehicles can be remote-controlled by a human operator. Einride said it will deploy its first truck using DeepMap’s mapping software in 2019.
Robert Falck, Founder and CEO of Einride, said “Self-driving technology is a key enabler for a sustainable transformation of the transportation industry and DeepMap’s technology is a key enabler for self-driving.”
DeepMap has raised significant funding recently. In July, the company announced an investment from NVIDIA. Although the exact amount was not disclosed, Techcrunch reported that the company raised another $60 million. The Series B round included Nvidia Corp., Generation Investment Management, Andreessen Horowitz, Accel Partners and GSR Ventures and Robert Bosch Venture Capital.
According to Pitchbook, the new round puts the valuation of DeepMap at $450 million post-money, making the company one of Silicon Valley’s most promising HD mapping startups.