Another entrant has joined the field of those offering self-driving tech to consumer car makers — but this one likely has a bit more experience than most…<\/b>
\nAnother new entrant has joined the field of those offering self-driving tech to consumer carmakers \u2014 but this one likely has a bit more experience than most. Virginia-based Torc Robotics has been working on autonomous vehicle tech since 2007, when it finished third in the DARPA Urban Challenge, and it has applied autonomy in a range of commercial, industrial and military applications.
Now Torc is setting its sights on the consumer car market, with a self-driving car project based on its decade of experience, with more than 1,000 miles logged of autonomous driving in recent tests using two modified Lexus RX vehicles. These have been active on roads since February 2017, driving in \u201call weather\u201d conditions according to Torc, and equipped with Torc\u2019s in-house localization, mapping, navigation and object detection\/tracking systems.
One of Torc\u2019s test vehicles performed a demonstration long-distance drive, making the 1,000 mile round trip from their Virginia HQ to Ford\u2019s Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit \u2014 a symbolic debut voyage to the heart of U. S. car country and the birthplace of the original Model T.
Why now for the automotive push? Torc CEO Michael Fleming told me that the time is finally right, both in terms of the state of available technology, but also in terms of the appetite for autonomous products from consumer automakers \u2014 which weren\u2019 t always as eager to develop and invest in self-driving.
\u201cWhat we\u2019 ve found is that were some other markets that were early adopters to this technology, and there wasn\u2019 t a great deal of interest in the automotive industry coming out of the DARPA Challenge, \u201d explained Fleming. \u201cGoogle is really the early adopter of this technology, with some key folks from the Carnegie Mellon and Stanford teams from 10 years ago, and they\u2019 ve done some great marketing, and they\u2019 ve been on the forefront of this technology in the automotive space.\u201d
Fleming clearly gives Google a lot of credit in terms of its role popularizing autonomous driving and making it a more familiar, comfortable subject for public discussion. But I wondered if Google\u2019s own efforts to build a comprehensive self-driving system (now under Alphabet\u2019s Waymo) might not inhibit Torc\u2019s ability to operate in the same market.
\u201cOur role is more of an enabler, \u201d Fleming said. \u201cWe work with OEMs, tier 1s and tier 2s in the automotive space, taking our 10 years of experience and working with these organizations, outlining their road map moving forward. This is fairly new technology to a lot of the players in the automotive space, but this is something we\u2019 ve been doing every day for the last 10 years, and we\u2019 ve tried just about every combination of technology, so we knows what works and what doesn\u2019 t work.\u201d
Torc can act as a sort of \u201cguide\u201d helping players new to the space navigate the hype that is omnipresent in autonomous driving tech, Fleming says. But in addition to roadmapping, Torc also aims to integrate its own platforms with those of clients and partners bringing commercially viable self-driving tech to market. In other words, it sees itself as one of a number of partners working together, which fits with the current model being embraced by most automotive OEs.
Fleming says we can expect to hear more from Torc on the autonomous car front in the coming months, including updates regarding its technology and partners. It\u2019s early days yet for its consumer automotive business, but it does possess a rare thing in the burgeoning market: experience.<\/p>\n

\n

Similarity rank: 1.1<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: 1.1<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n