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autonomous driving

Parallel Domain says autonomous driving won’t scale without synthetic data • ZebethMedia

Achieving autonomous driving safely requires near endless hours of training software on every situation that could possibly arise before putting a vehicle on the road. Historically, autonomy companies have collected hordes of real-world data with which to train their algorithms, but it’s impossible to train a system how to handle edge cases based on real-world data alone. Not only that, but it’s time consuming to even collect, sort and label all that data in the first place. Most self-driving vehicle companies, like Cruise, Waymo and Waabi, use synthetic data for training and testing perception models with speed and a level of control that’s impossible with data collected from the real world. Parallel Domain, a startup that has built a data generation platform for autonomy companies, says synthetic data is a critical component to scaling the AI that powers vision and perception systems and preparing them for the unpredictability of the physical world. The startup just closed a $30 million Series B led by March Capital, with participation from return investors Costanoa Ventures, Foundry Group, Calibrate Ventures and Ubiquity Ventures. Parallel Domain has been focused on the automotive market, supplying synthetic data to some of the major OEMs that are building advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving companies building much more advanced self-driving systems. Now, Parallel Domain is ready to expand into drones and mobile computer vision, according to co-founder and CEO Kevin McNamara. “We’re also really doubling down on generative AI approaches for content generation,” McNamara told ZebethMedia. “How can we use some of the advancements in generative AI to bring a much broader diversity of things and people and behaviors into our worlds? Because again, the hard part here is really, once you have a physically accurate renderer, how do you actually go build the million different scenarios a car is going to need to encounter?” The startup also wants to hire a team to support its growing customer base across North America, Europe and Asia, according to McNamara. Virtual world building A sample of Parallel Domain’s synthetic data. Image Credit: Parallel Domain When Parallel Domain was founded in 2017, the startup was hyper focused on creating virtual worlds based on real-world map data. Over the past five years, Parallel Domain has added to its world generation by filling it with cars, people, different times of day, weather and all the range of behaviors that make those worlds interesting. This enables customers — of which Parallel Domain counts Google, Continental, Woven Planet and Toyota Research Institute — to generate dynamic camera, radar and lidar data that they would need to actually train and test their vision and perception systems, said McNamara.  Parallel Domain’s synthetic data platform consists of two modes: training and testing. When training, customers will describe high level parameters — for example, highway driving with 50% rain, 20% at night and an ambulance in every sequence — on which they want to train their model and the system will generate hundreds of thousands of examples to meet those parameters. On the testing side, Parallel Domain offers an API that allows the customer to control the placement of dynamic things in the world, which can then be hooked up to their simulator to test specific scenarios. Waymo, for example, is particularly keen on using synthetic data to test for different weather conditions, the company told ZebethMedia. (Disclaimer: Waymo is not a confirmed Parallel Domain customer.) Waymo sees weather as a new lens it can apply to all the miles it has driven in real world and in simulation, since it would be impossible to recollect all those experiences with arbitrary weather conditions. Whether it’s testing or training, whenever Parallel Domain’s software creates a simulation, it is able to automatically generate labels to correspond with each simulated agent. This helps machine learning teams do supervised learning and testing without having to go through the arduous process of labeling data themselves. Parallel Domain envisions a world in which autonomy companies use synthetic data for most, if not all, of their training and testing needs. Today, the ratio of synthetic to real world data varies from company to company. More established businesses with the historical resources to have collected lots of data are using synthetic data for about 20% to 40% of their needs, whereas companies that are earlier in their product development process are relying 80% on synthetic versus 20% real world, according to McNamara. Julia Klein, partner at March Capital and now one of Parallel Domain’s board members, said she thinks synthetic data will play a critical role in the future of machine learning.  “Obtaining the real world data that you need to train computer vision models is oftentimes an obstacle and there’s hold ups in terms of being able to get that data in, to label that data, to get it ready to a position where it can actually be used,” Klein told ZebethMedia. “What we’ve seen with Parallel Domain is that they’re expediting that process considerably, and they’re also addressing things that you may not even get in real world datasets.”

Hyundai and WeRide plan to fuel self-driving with hydrogen in China • ZebethMedia

While hydrogen is still relatively niched as a fuel for electric vehicles, a startup in China is jumping ahead to embrace it for autonomous driving scenarios. WeRide, one of the most funded robotaxi operators in China with investors including Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, said Tuesday it is joining hands with Hyundai to launch a “self-driving hydrogen-powered vehicle pilot zone” in Guangzhou, the southern metropolis where it’s headquartered. The collaboration comes at a time when the research and production of clean hydrogen increasingly becomes a focal point for China, which has been striving to decarbonize its economy. Details are scant from the announcement. It’s unclear when the pilot will kick off, what the scale of the trial is, or what exactly is being powered by hydrogen, which is considered one of the cleanest fuels as it is combined with oxygen to produce just water vapor and energy. But it won’t be surprising to see unmanned hydrogen vehicles roaming about the pilot zone since Hyundai has been betting big on the fuel. Indeed, the announcement says that WeRide, Hyundai, and Hengyun, a Chinese power generation and supply company, will work together to “create demand for the use of hydrogen fuel cell battery in unmanned street cleaning and ride-hailing.” In September last year, Hyundai said it planned to offer hydrogen cell fuel versions for all of its commercial vehicles by 2028. The tie-up with WeRide could expand the use case of its hydrogen products to robotaxis. Hydrogen-fuelled vehicles can recharge within minutes, making them an ideal medium for taxi operations if there’s enough refueling infrastructure. Guangzhou is a natural choice for the experiment given Hyundai has been producing hydrogen fuel cell systems in the city since March 2021. When the facility opened last year, the South Korean auto giant set an annual target to produce “6,500 units, with a goal to gradually expand production capacity in line with Chinese market conditions and central government policies.” China has made a big push to electrify its public transportation. In Shenzhen, the hardware capital of the world, nearly all buses and cabs run on lithium-ion battery packs. While the city has grown quieter with fresher air thanks to the initiative, battery safety and recycling remain big sticking points for the local authorities. Long lines often form at charging stations as it can take hours to fully refuel lithium-ion batteries.  

Volkswagen to plough €2.4B into vehicle automation in China and form JV with Horizon Robotics • ZebethMedia

Volkswagen is accelerating the pace to automate its electric vehicles for Chinese customers. CARIAD, a wholly-owned automotive software company of the German auto behemoth, intends to set up a joint venture with Horizon Robotics, one of China’s most serious auto chip developers, the company said on Thursday. The German automaker plans to deploy around €2.4 billion to its cooperation with Horizon Robotics, a transaction that’s expected to be completed by 2023 and is subject to regulatory approval. Following the deal, CARIAD will hold a majority stake of 60% in the JV. It wasn’t until 2020 that China moved to ease the rules that had previously barred foreign companies from owning majority stakes in local auto firms. The tie-up comes at a time of global chip shortage and surging semiconductor costs. A handful of automakers are already moving some of their chip production in-house to counter supply chain uncertainties. China’s electric vehicle upstarts Xpeng and Nio have both assembled sizable teams to develop auto-grade chips, according to Chinese tech business publication LatePost. The deal came just weeks after Horizon announced it had received a strategic investment from China’s state-owned automaker Chery Automobile. Together with Horizon Robotics, Volkswagen will be working on full-stack advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving solutions for the Chinese market. The goal is to “drive forward the integration of numerous functions on one chip, increasing the stability of the system, saving costs, and reducing energy consumption.” The vision is reminiscent of Nvidia’s recently announced next-generation auto-grade chip that’s designed to unify autonomous driving and in-car technologies. It’s interesting to see Volkswagen forming close ties with a Chinese startup, while Nvidia’s state-of-the-art auto chip is widely recognized as the most cutting-edge in the industry. Given the escalation of U.S. chip limits on China, it won’t be surprising that supply chain diversification is on the mind of VW executives. The question is whether Horizon can deliver something that’s up to par with its American counterpart. In any case, having an on-the-ground partner will likely help VW create more customized solutions for the world’s largest auto market. As Ralf Brandstätter, member of the management board of Volkswagen AG for China, remarks in a statement: “Localized technology development grants the region more autonomy to further expand its position in the dynamic automotive market. Cutting-edge technology comprising the full software and hardware stack, which the new joint venture will develop, will enable us to tailor our products and services even faster and more consistently to the needs of our Chinese customers. Teaming up with Horizon Robotics will allow Volkswagen to accelerate the development of automated driving solutions as part of our NEW AUTO strategy and drive the repositioning of our China business.”

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