DriveU.auto
Proceeds from the funding round will help the company to speed up autonomous vehicles deployment. Credit: Adam Stefanca on Unsplash.

DriveU.auto, a US-based developer of a connectivity platform for autonomous vehicle (AV) teleoperation, has raised $4m through a funding round.

Proceeds from the funding round will help it to speed up AV deployment through better connectivity.

The funding round was led by Zohar Zisapel, Two Lanterns Venture Partners, Yigal Jacoby, Kaedan Capital, and other private investors.

These investors have joined existing shareholder Francisco Partners.

Alon Podhurst became the CEO of DriveU.auto, which was originally set up as part of LiveU, a provider of HD video transmission.

LiveU provides portable cellular solutions for quality video streaming and live broadcasting.

DriveU.auto has therefore come from ten years of experience with cellular bonding and video transmission. It provides quality, low-latency, reliable connectivity for teleoperations of autonomous vehicles.

Podhurst said: “We are thankful for the vote of confidence by our investors and shareholders in these times of economic uncertainty. The demand for reliable teleoperations has been set in regulation in many regions testing and launching autonomous vehicles on public roads.

“DriveU.auto has seen great market traction within different verticals of the AV space, with leading developers and Tier 1 suppliers already using our solution on public roads. We are looking forward to further developing the DriveU.auto business through growing our customer base and our team in the coming months.”

In several regions where self-driving vehicles are deployed, remote human oversight and the ability to intervene are necessary.

Teleoperations require the transfer of large amounts of information such as 4k videos, multiple audio streams, data, and controls, in real-time. However, with single modem or even 5G networks, such high-performance connectivity is not possible.

DriveU.auto claimed that its solution acts as a mission-critical teleoperation-enabling connectivity platform.

This solution has several uses in autonomous technology, including robotaxis, autonomous trucks, delivery drones, and more.

DriveU.auto’s connectivity platform is claimed to overcome unpredictable network behaviour, including choppy uplink throughput, delay, jitter, and packet loss.

It works over several networks in parallel, making use of patented cellular bonding technology, 4k video encoding and advanced algorithms. This allows real-time adaptation to altering network conditions.