INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Autonomous vehicles need more than a brain to operate safely in a world filled with obstacles
Or more specifically, self-driving vehicles need maps that constantly refresh and can deliver important information — like that sudden
lane closure due to construction or a double-parked vehicle — so they can take the safest and most efficient route possible.This specific
need has provided an opening for startups in what once looked like a locked-up mapping market dominated by a few giants.Carmera,a New
York-based mapping and data analytics startup, is one of them
The company, which came out of stealth two years ago, has now raised $20 million in a Series B funding round led by GV, formerly known as
Carmera previously raised $6.5 million.The company announced the funding raise Thursday along with a few other updates, including a new
feature on its autonomous mapping product and a partnership with New York City
The capital will be used to hire more talent and expand.&We&ll be doing the most aggressive hiring we&ve ever done this next year,& Carmera
co-founder and CEO Ro Gupta told TechCrunch, adding that the company will mostly focus on building out its New York and Seattle offices
Carmera, which has about 25 employees, plans to have more than 50 by the end of next year.&The money also allows us to be more prospective
than simply reacting to customer needs,& Gupta added.In other words, Carmera can move into new markets where it suspects there will be a
need in the future, not just wait for a call from their customers
One of those customers is Voyage, the autonomous driving startup that currently operates self-driving cars in retirement communities.Carmera
has an interesting business model, and one that likely attractive to investors looking for startups with a present-day revenue stream
The company describes itself as a street intelligence platform for autonomy
Its main product is the Carmera autonomous map, a high-definition map for autonomous vehicle customers like automakers, suppliers and
robotaxis.The twist here is that the company uses data gleaned from its other product — a fleet-monitoring service used by commercial
customers with vehicles driven by humans — to keep those AV maps fresh
The fleet product is a telematics and video monitoring service used by professional fleets that want to manage risk with their vehicles and
drivers.These fleets of camera-equipped human-driven vehicles deliver new information to the autonomous map as they go about their daily
business in cities.Carmera calls this a &pro-sourcing& swarm.The startup has now added a real-time events and change-management engine to
its autonomous map that Gupta contends is a major leap forward because it not only provides more detailed information to self-driving
vehicles, it gives these driverless vehicles a suggested path.In some mapping products, there generally a base map and then a dynamic
The problem, Gupta explains, is that when things change, like a lane closure, the dynamic map only flags it, leaving it up to the vehicle to
figure out what to do next.&That works fine when humans are driving, it just doesn&t go far enough for AVs,& Gupta said
&What they need to know is how do I path plan around it&Carmera real-time events and change-management featureThe map will detect a change
in milliseconds, classify it within seconds and then validate and redraw the base map within minutes, according to Carmera
The company isgiving companies deploying autonomous vehicles API access to this data at every stage.Carmera also has a &site intelligence
product,& a jargon term that means the company provides spatial data and street analytics (like how pedestrians move within a particular
intersection) to urban planners.Carmera announced Thursday it will begin sharing data such as historical pedestrian analytics and real-time
construction detection with New York City Department of Transportation
Carmera will get access to key city data sets in return
The partnership with NYC DOT followsanearlier-data sharing initiativewith the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.
