Korean startup Autonomous a2z has garnered a seed investment of $1.9 million to develop autonomous mobility solutions for the Korean market.
Founded in 2018, Autonomous a2z said it has started commercialization of ongoing projects and can provide services ranging from recognition of surrounding conditions, determination of driving condition strategies to automatic vehicle control.
The company’s technology is based on precise and quick localization algorithms by combining high definition maps and simultaneous signal processing from multiple lidar. The short-term goal of the company is to develop and commercialize special vehicles such as cleaning trucks, container trucks and tractors, and the long-term goal is to develop self-driving cars for robotaxis. By the end of the year, the company will sell four small buses to Ulsan Metropolitan City and the company is in discussions to supply a public mobility solution to Sejong City in 2021.
Other projects include one with a Korean telecommunications service provider and platform companies developing technology for smart cities.
Autonomous a2z has developed an unmanned test kit that automates vehicle driving tests and an autonomous vehicle software development kit (AVDK) that helps the development of autonomous driving algorithms in research institutes and schools in Korea. These kits are expected to be released in 2021.
The company also introduced a lidar software development kit to build lidar algorithms through the usage and monitoring of lidar data. The kit is compatible with Velodyne’s lidar VLP16 and can be linked simultaneously with up to four sensors. Autonomous a2z said it plans to expand its lineup so its AVDK can support the development of lidar, cameras and the entire sensor fusion algorithm.
