Market trends and business perspectives
Autonomous haulage truck developer TuSimple has raised $215 million in its Series D funding round.
TuSimple says the new funds are “part of an extended Series D round that was oversubscribed and reached a total of $215 million”.
The round includes previously announced investor UPS, the global logistics company. [Read more…] about TuSimple raises $215 million in ‘oversubscribed’ Series D funding round
A self-driving technology startup called Voyage Auto has raised $31 million in Series B funding.
The investment round was led by Franklin Templeton, with significant participation from Khosla Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover’s InMotion Ventures, and Chevron Technology Ventures.
The latest funding round brings Voyage Auto’s total capital raised to $52 million. [Read more…] about Self-driving tech startup Voyage Auto raises $31 million in funding
Yamaha’s agricultural technology investments leader says he is observing the vertical farming market with a view to backing startups in the sector. (See video below.)
In a wide-ranging interview with Robotics and Automation News, Nolan Paul, partner, global agricultural technology lead at Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley, says he finds vertical farming
“Vertical farming is one of those technologies which has the ability to transform the way food is grown and consumed,” says Paul. [Read more…] about Yamaha looking to invest in vertical farming companies
by Sam Francis
Yamaha is using part of its $100 million investment fund to buy a stake in Advanced Farm Technologies.
Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley led the Series A funding round for the startup.
Yamaha says this latest investment reflects the company’s “core interest in businesses driving innovation in the agricultural sector. [Read more…] about Yamaha taps into its $100 million fund to invest in Advanced Farm Technologies
by Mai Tao
Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley, the strategic business development and investment arm of Yamaha Motor, has participated in the $16 million Series A funding round for Exyn Technologies, a developer of autonomous aerial robotics for GPS-denied environments.
The investment is one of the first out of the $100 million Yamaha Motor Exploratory Fund established in 2018 and activated this year. The Exyn investment reflects YMVSV’s interest in developing innovation in the aviation sector.
George Kellerman, CEO and managing director of YMVSV, says: “Advanced aerial autonomy technologies have broad impacts across industry sectors, making Exyn Technologies a very attractive exploratory investment for us. [Read more…] about Yamaha invests in drone tech startup Exyn
by Mai Tao
Neolix, a maker of small autonomous delivery vehicles, has laid the foundation stone to mark the start of building a factory for manufacturing driverless vehicles.
The company says the new facility in Changzhou will be the first unmanned vehicle mass-production base in the region, and possibly the world.
The plant will produce vehicles which have “Level 4” autonomation, which is described as “full autonomy with human driver” by the SAE. [Read more…] about Neolix inaugurates factory for manufacturing autonomous vehicles
by Sam Francis
Honda Aircraft Company says it plans to expand its global headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina by investing an additional $15.5 million in a new 82,000-square-foot facility on its 133+ acre campus in Greensboro.
This will bring the company’s total capital investment in its North Carolina facilities to more than $245 million.
Scheduled to break ground in July 2019, the building will house a new wing assembly process for the HondaJet Elite. [Read more…] about Honda Aircraft Company to invest $16 million into expanding US production facility
by Sam Francis
United States Steel Corporation says it will make an additional investment of more than $1 billion into its Pennsylvania operations.
The investment will be used to construct a new sustainable endless casting and rolling facility at its Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pennsylvania, and a cogeneration facility at its Clairton Plant in Clairton, Pennsylvania, both part of the company’s Mon Valley Works.
The “cutting-edge” endless casting and rolling technology combines thin slab casting and hot rolled band production into one continuous process and will make Mon Valley Works “the first facility of this type” in the US and one of only a handful in the world, says the company.
[Read more…] about US Steel to invest $1 billion in new facilityby Sam Francis
The autonomous driving business which General Motors acquired three years ago, Cruise, has raised more than $1 billion in its latest funding round, bringing total capital raised to approximately $7 billion.
Cruise says the equity investment of $1.15 billion is from a group comprising institutional investors, including funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, and existing partners GM, SoftBank Vision Fund and Honda.
Dan Ammann, Cruise CEO, says: “Developing and deploying self-driving vehicles at massive scale is the engineering challenge of our generation.
[Read more…] about GM’s autonomous driving business Cruise raises another $1.15 billionby Anna
Oceaneering International, Inc., and Pacific Drilling have entered into a five-year Digital Services Package agreement to provide Pacific’s customers with better reliability and improved throughput enabling streaming video and real-time data.
This will allow the provision of emerging services such as remote ROV piloting, surveying, and automation aboard Pacific Drilling’s high-specification drillship fleet.
As a result of these efforts, Pacific Drilling’s customers can benefit from higher security, increased access and management of third parties as well as new and expanded digital services.
[Read more…] about Oceaneering selected to ‘digitally’ transform Pacific Drilling’s global fleetRobotics and Automation News was established in May, 2015, and is now one of the most widely-read websites in its category.
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