Volvo Group Venture Capital has invested in a company specialising in the field of measurable safety for driver assistance and autonomous vehicles. Foretellix Ltd was founded in 2018 by a team of verification and validation pioneers whose mission is to make automated driving systems safe and efficient.
The investment forms part of $32 million raised in the latest series-B funding round for the Israeli start-up, bringing the company’s total raised capital to more than $50 million.
It follows news that Volvo Autonomous Solutions has formed a closer partnership with Foretellix with the aim of jointly creating a coverage-driven verification solution for autonomous driving that operates both on public roads and in restricted areas. The solution will be tested both on highways and in confined spaces, such as mines and quarries.
Nils Jaeger (pictured), president and head of Volvo Autonomous Solutions, explained: “Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Foretellix entered into a partnership in March this year. We clearly understand the ongoing progress and the benefits of working with the Foretellix team and their verification platform. Based on our experience, Volvo decided to invest in Foretellix as well.”
One of the main challenges of autonomous systems is deciding when a product is safe enough to commercialize. This is what Foretellix is tackling with its verification platform. It uses intelligent automation and big data analytics tools which coordinate and monitor millions of driving scenarios to ensure that the autonomous vehicle behaves correctly under all possible driving conditions.
David Hanngren, investment director Volvo Group Venture Capital said: The team is very experienced and the solution is attractive to a vehicle manufacturer like Volvo. We think that the Foretellix business model and technology will play a part in future mobility. Foretellix can provide the Volvo Group with further insights into safe autonomous driving.”
Foretellix use a quantifiable approach to safety and hyper-automation to create and test all possible scenarios autonomous driving systems may encounter, along with big data analytics to ensure the safety and completeness of the testing processes.
This advanced platform is used throughout the development cycle, from the requirements stage through product development, verification, and validation, ensuring safety and productivity while reducing development cost and time to market/deployment.
Ziv Binyamini, CEO and co-founder of Foretellix, said: “The investment from Volvo Group Venture Capital further strengthens our partnership with the Volvo Group and will help Foretellix to continue accelerating the safe deployment of increasingly advanced automated driving systems.”
