A start-up born out of Stanford just entered the driverless car race with a radical approach

A start-up born out of Stanford just entered the driverless car race with a radical approach

Drive.ai, a start-up born out of Stanford's artificial intelligence lab, has officially entered the driverless car arms race.

But Drive.ai has no interest in building an actual, self-driving car. Rather, as co-founder and president Carol Reiley told Business Insider, the start-up plans to sell "the brains of the car."

That car brain comes in the form of sensors, LiDAR, and Radar like many other companies are using, but with one important addition many aren't using: deep learning software.

"We definitely think the car is a computer on wheels, and would love to really build the brains behind it and figure out what the sensory inputs are," Reiley said.

Drive.ai's product is a roof kit with "the brains of the car" that can be retrofitted to any vehicle, from a truck to a golf cart. Reiley said the start-up has official partners with auto companies, but declined to say how many companies or which ones.

Drive.ai will release fleets of its cars on select routes for package delivery, ridesharing, and public transit, as part of its unnamed partnerships within the next few months, Reiley said.

The start-up has raised $12 million from early stage venture capital fund Oriza Ventures and other unnamed investors. Steve Girsky, who sat on General Motors' Board of Directors for seven years, is sitting on the board of directors for Drive.ai.

read more : http://www.businessinsider.fr/us/driveai-using-deep-learning-for-its-autonomous-cars-2016-8/