UVeye revs up funding from Volvo, Toyota
UVeye revs up funding from Volvo, Toyota
July 29, 2019
By Ken Wieland
29 July 2019
Israel-based UVeye raised
$31m in a funding round led by Toyota Tsusho and Volvo Cars. Other investors included W R
Berkley Corporation and FiT
ventures.
UVeye, which develops AI-based solutions for automatic
external inspection of vehicles, bragged that it now had commercial
relationships across ‘several tier-1’ global auto manufacturers. The start-up
has the lofty ambition to become the global standard for vehicle inspection.
Amir Hever, chief executive of UVeye, naturally welcomed the extra
funding. He reckoned it was a strong endorsement of the firm’s “game-changing
auto scanning solution”.
AI drive-thru
How it works is
this. By using what it calls a ‘first-of-its-kind’ AI, purpose-built for
vehicles, UVeye’s drive-through systems are designed to detect external and
mechanical flaws and identify anomalies, modifications or foreign objects --
both along the undercarriage and around the exterior of the vehicle.
The scanning
process, said UVeye, completes within a matter of seconds and can be used
throughout the entire lifecycle of the vehicle. The technology is apparently
being actively deployed today across many use cases, from the vehicle
manufacturing line – the moment components are placed on the conveyor belt
through end-of-line inspection – to logistics, maintenance and beyond.
UVeye’s anomaly
detection accuracy rate, claims the start-up, has exceeded client thresholds in
all case studies to date.
As part of the
investment deal, Volvo Cars and Toyota Tsusho intend to use UVEYE’s inspection
systems at various sites internationally, including Volvo Cars’ factories
dealerships and in the after-market.
Won’t get fooled
again
The sheer expense
of recalling vehicles in the event of problems emerging after they leave the
factory is no doubt a compelling reason why auto-manufacturers appear to be
increasingly interested in UVeye. Both Volvo Group and Toyota Group can bear
witness to that.
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