Powerful cash injection for US high-carat startup: VW’s self-driving partner Aurora sank 90 million

03/02/2018

Powerful cash injection for US high-car startup VW’s self-driving partner Aurora sank $ 90 million

DPA

Aurora co-founder Chris Urmson receives $ 90 million from investors for his robotic car startup

Just a year old and already a heavyweight in the field of autonomous driving: This lightning start has the US startup Aurora put down. Within months, the California startup has partnerships with Volkswagen, Audi, Hyundai and the Chinese Electric car startup Byton agreed.

Now, the Californians get a hefty cash injection: The two funds Greylock Partners and Index Ventures participate with $ 90 million in the company, as US media report. In addition, Aurora is expanding its supervisory board with two new members with a lot of tech know-how: Reid Hoffman, co-founder of the business network LinkedIn and partner at Greylock, will be represented on the supervisory board in the future. The second new addition is Mike Volpi of Index Ventures, the former head of strategy of IT giant Cisco.

Aurora’s first major round of financing is one of the largest for an automotive technology company. The large sum for the company’s first round of financing also shows how strongly investors are pushing into the market for self-driving cars.

One reason for the donation joy of the donors probably lies in the impeccable reputation of the Aurora management: The three founders are considered in the robot car scene as luminaries. Chris Urmson led Google’s development program for autonomous cars for many years. Sterling Anderson was responsible for the autopilot at Tesla.

Third Aurora co-founder, Drew Bagnell, is one of the most respected US machine learning experts. He was instrumental in helping Uber drive its program towards self-propelled vehicles.

VW’s Moia shuttles have Aurora’s self-propelled technology on board

In early 2017, the trio founded Aurora after leaving former jobs. Their start-up capital was rather narrow at $ 6 million. However, this may have been due to a rather unpleasant starting detail: Anderson’s ex-employer Tesla sued him and Urmson for allegedly poaching more than a dozen Tesla engineers – and secret clutches. Mid-April The two Aurora founders agreed with Tesla on a payment of $ 100,000, in return, Tesla dropped all allegations. Only then did the startup have a clear path.

Urmson, Anderson and Bagnell used their reputation to create high-profile collaborations with major automakers. It was probably successful because Aurora made it clear that she did not think about owning cars. Instead, they positioned themselves as a technology supplier. Together with car companies, they are now working to develop sensors, software and data services for fully autonomous vehicles.

From the outset, Aurora aims for level 4 autonomy or more, as industry jargon puts it. So the startup wants to develop technology that allows cars to drive themselves in most situations and that rarely requires driver intervention.

This is exactly what Volkswagen hopes for from the startup. According to Fortune, both companies have been working for months to integrate Arurora’s self-drive system in the new electric shuttles of the VW mobility service Moia. VW wants to join this year Start 200 Moia vehicles in Hamburg, However, they will still have human drivers on board. For the fully self-propelled technology is not yet fully developed – and legally not allowed.

Now VW has a well-funded partner for autonomous driving at his side. However, the company did not want to reveal how high the rating of Aurora after the first round of financing.

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