According to industry sources, the visit by Elon Musk in Israel is connected to collaboration between electric vehicle and autonomous vehicle company Tesla, which Musk heads, and Israeli computerized vision company Cortica. The talks between the two companies could develop into financial investment in Cortica, or even an acquisition of the company. Cortica declined to comment and Tesla denied that there were talks.
Cortica is developing unsupervised machine learning systems that can understand a vehicle's environment and identify objects while the vehicle is travelling. The company was founded in 2007, has so far raised $70 million, and has registered about 200 patents on its technology.
It was recently reported that Volkswagen Group would adopt Cortica's technology. Cortica has installed its technology on seven prototype models of various makers of autonomous vehicles, and has signed a collaboration agreement with Best Group of India, which produces parts for leading vehicle makers.
Cortica was founded by Karina Odinaev (COO), Igal Raichelgauz (CEO), and Prof. Josh Zeevi (chief scientist). Among the investors in the company are Uzia Galil, Samsung, Li Ka-shing, Chinese search giant Qihoo, and Mail.Ru.
Interviewed by "Globes" in December, Raichelgauz said, "By leveraging brain research for creating an AI system with unsupervised learning capability, Cortica has developed the most effective computerized vision system ever seen. The uniqueness of Cortica's technology lies not just in its independent learning capability, but also in that fact that it is transparent, transferrable, and verifiable."
Raichelgauz said at the time that the company did not plan an exit or flotation in the near future. "We have no interest in making an IPO or in significant fund raising at the moment. We are looking for strategic partnerships with major players, preferably tier 1, who will give us the ability to implement the technology in products that will be integrated into vehicles."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 20, 2018
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018