StradVision Opens Office in Shanghai to Tap into China's Growing Autonomous Vehicle Market with its Advanced AI-Powered Perception System

author: FutureCar Staff    

StradVision, a company founded in 2014 that's developing  AI-powered perception systems for autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assist systems (ADAS)  announced  that it has established a subsidiary in Shanghai, which will help the company tap into China's growing market for autonomous driving technology. 

StradVision plans to expand its business and strengthen customer support in China through the newly established branch office in Shanghai. As part of its expansion in China, StradVision appointed Frank Liu, a local industry expert, as its new sales director to strengthen its business in the Greater China region, which is the world's largest auto market. 

Liu is a local industry expert with experience in automobile and electric vehicle companies such as AGC Automotive in China, Delphi Electrical Centers and Shanghai Johnson Controls International Battery Co., Ltd. Before joining StradVision, Liu worked as a sales manager for various products of Baidu's "Apollo" autonomous driving project.

"We are very excited to establish a branch office in China, an important market where StradVision won its first mass production contract," said StradVision CEO, Junhwan Kim. "China is one of the leading countries in the global autonomous vehicle industry through aggressive investment and technology development. With the establishment of the Shanghai branch office and the appointment of a sales director, we will spur collaboration with Chinese customers leading the automotive industry."

In addition to its new Shanghai subsidiary, Strandvision has offices in San Jose, CA, Seoul, Tokyo and Munich.

StradVision has already collaborated on development projects of ADAS and autonomous driving technology with various customers in the Chinese automotive industry, including a production contract signed with China's Chang'an Motors to supply its vision-based perception software product called "SVNet". 

StradVision's SVNet is a lightweight AI-powered deep learning-based perception system that uses deep learning algorithms. It's more compact and requires dramatically less memory and power, which makes it attractive for automakers to add to their vehicles.

SVNet supports enhanced depth-mapping solutions, semantic segmentation, and lane detection for lane-keep assist and other ADAS safety features. Its advanced perception capabilities allow vehicles to execute ADAS and self-driving functions more safely, including systems such as automatic emergency braking (AEB) and adaptive cruise control.

SVNet supports more than 14 hardware platforms and can also be customized and optimized for any other hardware system using StradVision's patented and cutting-edge deep neural network (DNN) technology. 

In April, StradVision announced two major partnerships with a leading German automotive OEM and Tier-1 supplier. The company will supply its augmented reality perception technology for navigation and lane-keep assistance systems (LKAS). The second partnership is with a leading global Tier-1 supplier to provide its Surround View Monitoring (SVM) algorithm that supports Park-Assist functions such as Automatic Parking Assistance (APA).

StradVision did not name the companies yet, but said its augmented reality technology will be featured on more than 40 vehicles from the OEM. The vehicles are scheduled for production globally in 2022. 

StradVision believes that technology like its Surround View Monitoring solution will be in high-demand for many years. Surround view monitoring mimics how a vehicle looks from above using images stitched together from a vehicle's cameras. It's typically used as a parking aid.

A similar feature is found on the new Volvo XC90 SUV. Volvo calls its "360° Surround View", but its commonly referred to as a "bird's eye view." 

"Imagine the peace of mind that will come with knowing you don't have to park in a difficult spot for yourself, and can let the vehicle do the work for you," said Mr. Kim in April when the OEM partnership was announced. " As the industry continues to trend toward self-parking vehicles and Auto-Valet features, StradVision's vision processing expertise will be extremely helpful to Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs making this transition. 

In 2020, StradVision received the Autonomous Vehicle Technology ACES Award in the autonomy software category. The award recognizes innovative technologies in the areas of vehicle autonomy, connectivity, electrification, and mobility services (ACES).  

FutureCar Staff