driveblocks to offer scalable platform for L4 & L5 autonomous vehicles

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driveblocks intends to build a set of open source software elements to speed the development of autonomous vehicles. | Image credit: driveblocks

The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) has produced its first spin-off company. driveblocks is being launched by TUM Autonomous Motorsport, Technische Universität München (Germany), which was the winner of the IAC $1 million competition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on October 23, 2021. driveblocks’ new autonomy platform is designed for SAE Level 4 and 5 applications.

This comes as the IAC prepares for its high-speed, head-to-head autonomous racecar competition on Friday, January 7, 2022, at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“The IAC is a platform for innovation,” said Paul Mitchell, president and CEO, Energy Systems Network, organizer of the IAC. “This competition is not only about catapulting autonomous technologies forward, but it’s also about educating and inspiring innovators and entrepreneurs to go out and lead the industry for generations to come, and that’s exactly what’s happening here with driveblocks and the TUM team.”

Team TUM from the Technical University of Munich wins the 2021 Indy Autonomous Challenge

driveblocks has a vision to offer a modular, scalable, robust and safe platform for fully autonomous vehicle applications. The company plans to focus entirely on applications without any human drivers, with an early roadmap targeting the commercial vehicle sector to first offer a complete solution to fleet automation and then allow customers to focus on domain specific expertise (mining, agriculture, warehouse logistics, etc.)

Harnessing the power of prize competitions to attract the best and brightest minds from around the world, the Indy Autonomous Challenge is working to solve real world problems by advancing technology that will speed the commercialization of fully autonomous vehicles and deployments of advanced driver-assistance systems.

“The IAC allowed us to build a large team of researchers and students, work with top international universities and collaborate with leading autonomous technology supplies,” said Alexander Wischnewski, co-team lead of TUM Autonomous Motorsport and CTO of driveblocks. “The competitive environment allowed us to grow our technical and management skills in real-world racing conditions, one of the most demanding applications of technology. It’s exactly what we needed to start driveblocks, and the advancements we’re making because of this launch will help us tackle some of the yet unsolved challenges in the autonomous vehicle industry.”

The driveblocks solution features:

• European market focus
• Robust perception
• Modular design
• In-vehicle sensor fusion (no HD map required)
• Developed according to norms such as ISO26262 and ISO PAS 21448
• Open standards and open architecture models

Listen to an interview with Wischnewski on The Robot Report Podcast.