Ford Is Part of Investor Group Behind Silicon Valley Mapping Startup, Civil Maps
Ford (F) - Get Report has joined an investor group that is providing $6.6 million to Silicon Valley startup Civil Maps with the mission of creating three-dimensional digital maps used by driverless cars to navigate roads and highways.
The startup competes with similar mapping efforts by Alphabet's (GOOGL) - Get Report Google subsidiary and HERE, a mapping venture once owned by Nokia that last summer was acquired by German carmakersBMW, Daimler (DDAIF) and Volkswagen (VLKAY) .
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Civil Maps was founded in 2014. It employs artificial intelligence and data collected by sensors on vehicles that are converted into "meaningful map information" for use in autonomous vehicles. Motus Ventures is leading the seed capital investment with Ford, AME Cloud Ventures, Wicklow Capital and StartX Stanford.
Although the venture is the early stage of development, Ford's participation could give the automaker greater insight and earlier access to a technology that many believe is critical to developing autonomous features and, eventually, fully driverless cars. Ford has chosen a deliberate, lower profile and more cautious path toward driverless technology, with fewer and less costly partnerships. than its main domestic rival, General Motors (GM) - Get Report .
In March, Ford appointed Jim Hackett, a retired furniture company executive with extensive Silicon Valley experience and relationships, to run Ford Smart Mobility LLC, a Ford unit created to chart the automaker's business strategy for autonomous and driverless technologies. Earlier in the year, Ford was widely reported to be in talks with Google about collaborating on driverless cars, though no outcome was announced.
"Autonomous vehicles require a totally new kind of map," Sravan Puttagunta, CEO of Civil Maps, said in a statement released by the startup. It is understood that the company has been working with Ford prior to last March when Ford Motor Mobility was created.
"Investing in and working with Civil Maps gives us an additional way to develop 3-D high-resolution maps, which will bring fully autonomous Ford vehicles a step closer for consumers," Alan Hall, a spokesman for the automaker, said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg.
Incumbent automakers are rushing to gain software and digital capability lest Silicon Valley enterprises relegate them to the role of vehicle suppliers in a world where personal transportation has been upended and transformed.
In May, Ford disclosed that it had invested $182 million to buy a 6.6% stake in Pivotal Software, a cloud-computing company. Pivotal had worked with the automaker to develop a mobility app. GM invested $1 billion to buy Cruise Automation and $500 million for a 9% stake in Lyft, the ride-hailing company. Google and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCAU) - Get Report are collaborating to build self-driving minivans.
Doron Levin is the host of "In the Driver Seat," broadcast on SiriusXM Insight 121, Saturday at noon, encore Sunday at 9 a.m.
This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.