Robotic Research Raises $228 Million to Expand Autonomous Driving Technology
Maryland-based Robotic Research spent most of two decades developing autonomous driving technology for the Department of Defense. Historically, its autonomous trucks operated in unstructured environments that were not mapped and had no marked roads or GPS.
The company has added sensors that are not typically used in commercial autonomous vehicles to its autonomy stack, such as stereo and structure-from-motion, a range imaging method for estimating three-dimensional structures from sequences of two-dimensional images. As a result, the company believes it has an advantage over competitors that are still afraid to operate driverless trucks on roads with bad weather.
“Most people think robotics is some kind of magic software. The reality is that robotics is more like a collection of corner cases. You have to gather all these different edge cases, where you need to be able to drive on a slippery road and through dust without being able to see lane lines and so on. We have collected a great many corner cases. To a certain extent, a normal day for a military application is an edge case for a commercial application”
With $228 million in funding, the first outside capital the company has raised, Robotic Research is launching a commercial division called RR.AI. The new venture will develop autonomous driving technology for trucks, buses and logistics vehicles.
RR.AI's autonomous kit, AutoDrive, is already integrated into various vehicles, including heavy-duty buses, Class 8 trucks and light commercial vehicles. AutoDrive can be used on roads, off-road or in yards, providing a 360-degree autonomous driving solution that covers various operational design domains (ODDs). The company said AutoDrive can do all of this without relying on GPS connectivity.
In 2020, Robotic Research won a contract from the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The pilot project aimed to develop three 12-meter Level 4 autonomous buses, which would carry safety drivers on board. Robotic Research also worked with Canadian sawmill companies. Its autonomous trucks drove planned routes from logging sites to the sawmill.
The company's CEO said Robotic Research is focused on "low-hanging fruit" applications that have few regulatory requirements.
“This investment reflects our success in developing autonomous solutions for our U.S. government customers and will provide the resources needed to meet growing demand from commercial customers and expand our commercial efforts. Our long history and experience have allowed us to develop a proven solution that is not only robust, safe and reliable, but also versatile and ideally suited for operating in a variety of environments, weather conditions and use cases”
"We are very interested in working in areas where we can produce with sensors at the price they cost today and where we can make a profit," Lacaze said, noting that sensors needed for autonomous operations, such as cameras, lidars and radars, are still very expensive, so it makes sense to install them on larger, heavy-duty and durable vehicles so that the cost of the sensors can pay off over time.
“We are probably the only autonomous company that has been profitable from the start. The reason we were able to do this is that we focused on smaller markets that were generating revenue right now. We don't need to wait until 2025 to deploy trucks, and this allows us to grow faster and accumulate miles more quickly”
According to him, the use of robotaxis in the future is not ruled out for RR.AI. The company's strategy is to wait for improvements in the regulatory framework and lower sensor costs before moving into new areas. But as RR.AI tries to scale within its comfort zone, it may find that there simply are not enough vehicles on the market to work with.
"We are somewhat dependent on automakers, since we do not manufacture our own vehicles. We are looking very carefully at all options to find vehicles that are available in areas where it makes sense from a regulatory standpoint to deploy right now," the company's CEO said.
The funding was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Enlightenment Capital. Crescent Cove Advisors, Henry Crown and lidar manufacturer Luminar also participated. This is Luminar's first strategic investment in equity. Luminar went public in late 2020 through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
“We believe autonomous vehicle technology can change the way people and goods move. Robotic Research has commercial sector experience and has created a differentiated autonomy solution focused on real revenue opportunities. We are very pleased to be a financial partner and to provide the resources needed to accelerate the commercialization of Robotic Research's solutions”
