NI acquired monoDrive to accelerate the development of autopilot

On May 4, NI announced the completion of the acquisition of monoDrive, a company headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA. This acquisition expands NI’s influence in the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) and simulation market and helps NI automotive customers accelerate development and testing And deploy safer autonomous driving systems.

As a multinational company, NI has been founded for more than 40 years and has developed numerous automated test and automated measurement systems that are used in various industries.

Founded in 2016, monoDrive is a leader in the development of ultra-high-fidelity simulation software for ADAS and autonomous vehicles. Its high-fidelity simulator allows automakers and their suppliers to use the simulator to drive vehicles millions of miles in a virtual world. Unlike human drivers testing self-driving cars, monoDrive simulators can help automakers identify edge situations that are unpredictable and can have dire consequences.

The design cycle of ADAS is complex, and automotive OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and suppliers need systems that can simplify the conversion between simulation, laboratory testing, and physical testing environments, and ultimately produce safer vehicles. Nowadays, different tools can cause isolation of processes, delays in time to market, and higher costs, which in turn reduces the speed of innovation and hinders the quality of advanced technologies.

And NI will use monoDrive's expertise in signal processing and advanced simulation to help customers accelerate the delivery of ADAS by simulating a high-fidelity driving environment with many sensors and thousands of real-time scenarios. This method, combined with the NI software-connected system, will help automotive customers realize the conversion between simplified simulation, laboratory-based test environments, and physical test environments. In the end, NI can help automakers and suppliers accelerate their journey towards autonomous vehicles. era.

Chad Chesney, vice president, and general manager of the automotive business unit of NI said that the combination of monoDrive's advanced software and NI's strong position in the ADAS field will enable a smooth transition of NI customers' software verification workflows. In turn, this will also provide higher test efficiency, wider coverage, and more realistic test scenarios, helping automakers to bring safe and reliable autonomous vehicles to the road faster.
MonoDrive CEO Celite Milbrandt said that in the past five years, monoDrive has achieved a leading position in the field of vehicle simulation. It is believed that the combination of NI and monoDrive products will help customers accelerate the deployment of safer vehicles.

In addition to this acquisition, NI also announced a strategic cooperation with Ansys, a global leader in engineering simulation. Ansys' industry-leading simulation solutions enable sensor suppliers to simulate the basic physical principles of their radars, lidars, and cameras from design to manufacturing.

NI and Ansys will help customers solve complex challenges in the process of reconstructing real-world simulation models to verify sensors and inject data into software and hardware under test in real-time. Through more accurate data and results, the virtual world of simulation and the world of physical testing in a real environment will be connected, which will provide customers with product insights and understand its performance in the market.

Matt Zack, vice president of Ansys Enterprise Development and Global Partnerships, said that combining Ansys's physical scenario-based sensor simulation solution with NI’s driving simulation and test architecture will enable the two parties’ common customers to develop safer ADAS faster technology.