AI Based Vehicle Maintenance Startup CARFIT Joins the NVIDIA Inception Program

author: Eric Walz   

PORTLAND, Ore., — CARFIT today announced it has joined the NVIDIA Inception Program, which is designed to support startups revolutionizing industries with advancements in artificial intelligence and data sciences.

Headquartered in Portland, Ore, CARFIT is a unique AI startup in vibration-based predictive maintenance for cars. The company will leverage the NVIDIA DRIVE processor to run machine learning for real time issue detection on tires, wheels, shocks and brakes. CARFIT will use NVIDIA's DRIVE series to offer a soft NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) analysis module for autonomous vehicles.

"We are thrilled to announce that CARFIT has joined the NVIDIA Inception program, which is designed to nurture startups revolutionizing industries with advancements in AI and data sciences. The collaboration with NVIDIA gives us access to the technical knowledge and hardware that is necessary for accelerating our development of cutting-edge products based on NVH processing with high computing needs." said Henri-Nicolas Olivier, CEO of CARFIT. He added, "Autonomous cars will need "autonomous maintenance" or predictive diagnostics to guarantee its users defined service level agreements in safety and comfort."

Unlike the other devices that retrieve diagnostic fault codes and vehicle sensor data, CARFIT's PULS plug-in module tracks the actual performance of a vehicle based on vibrations and movement. Using NVH technologies, CARFIT can analyze these vibrations for insight into mechanical issues. These insights effectively reduce vehicle maintenance costs.

Using Machine Learning to Identify Wear on Autonomous Vehicles

When designing a car, there are numerous tools that automotive engineers use to measure the amount of noise and vibration in a vehicle, including microphones, accelerometers, load cells, force gauges, dynamometers and even anechoic chambers for smaller components.

Microphones and anechoic chambers are used to measure sound levels while the remaining NVH testing tools measure force, impact and vibration. In a vehicle, unusual noise or vibrations often indicate a repair or maintenance need.  

A autonomous fleet or a self-driving ride-sharing vehicle will not have a driver to identify noise or vibrations that normally indicate the need for maintenance of potential part failure, such as the noise produced by a worn wheel bearing.

CARFIT's core technology uses machine learning to leverage the car vibration NVH science [Noise Vibration Harshness – the field of science studying vibrations and noises in vehicles] to identify wear and potential failures of the wearing parts of the driving gears of a vehicle. CARFIT's software module adds NVH computing capacities and access to a growing NVH knowledge base to identify abnormal vibrations.

CARFIT started to build the technology over two years ago and is currently delivering the first aftermarket solution for cars in circulation. CARFIT hopes to team up and collaborate with auto industry players on new mobility services and reate the connected maintenance solutions for autonomous vehicles in the future.

About NVIDIA Inception Program

NVIDIA, the world's leader in Artificial Intelligence Computing hardware and the largest manufacturer of GPUs, designed the Inception Program to "nurture dedicated and exceptional startups who are revolutionizing industries with advances in AI and data science. This virtual accelerator program helps startups during critical stages of product development, prototyping, and deployment."

Every NVIDIA Inception member gets a custom set of ongoing benefits, including hardware grants, marketing support and training with deep learning experts from NVIDIA.

CARFIT will use this support to accelerate its machine learning technology.

Eric Walz

Originally hailing from New Jersey, Eric is a automotive & technology reporter covering the high-tech industry here in Silicon Valley. He has over 15 years of automotive experience and a bachelors degree in computer science. These skills, combined with technical writing and news reporting, allows him to fully understand and identify new and innovative technologies in the auto industry and beyond. He has worked at Uber on self-driving cars and as a technical writer, helping people to understand and work with technology.