GM Joins Backers of Nauto AI Startup
General Motors Co. is the latest carmaker to invest in Nauto, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based developer of artificial intelligence software for autonomous vehicles.
General Motors Co. is the latest carmaker to invest in Nauto, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based developer of artificial intelligence software for self-driving cars.
The company said on Tuesday its second funding round of funding raised $159 million. The size of GM’s investment wasn’t disclosed.
Last October, the 2-year-old startup attracted investments from BMW and Toyota. Other current backers include insurer Allianz and Japan’s Softbank Group Corp.
Nauto’s goal is to provide insight into how drivers respond to the environment around their cars. Developers note, for example, that autonomous driving systems haven’t yet learned how to recognize when a human driver waves another through an intersection.
CEO Stefan Heck tells Reuters that self-driving systems must learn to “collaborate” with humans under such situations because autonomous vehicles will be sharing the road with cars piloted by people for several decades to come.
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