Self driving cars have been making slow but steady developmental progress for years. That’s about to change. Harbrick has developed PolySync: an out-of-box software platform for automated vehicles that will allow manufacturers to quickly prototype, test, and ship safe and reliable autonomous vehicles. PolySync recently teamed up with big technology and electronic giants in a move to bring this technology to the mass market.
At the upcoming International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Harbrick’s PolySync software will be featured in a number of automotive demos. One confidential parter will be demonstrating a prototype Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) based on vision, LiDAR, and radar sensing. ADAS technology has made huge leaps in driver safety and is one of the fastest-growing segments in automotive electronics. Renesas, another partner, will be demonstrating how PolySync can be used to implement a high-bandwidth, real-time data bus between multiple ECUs. Renesas’ focus is on the handling of massive amounts of LiDAR, radar, and camera data that is needed for self-driving algorithms.
When it comes to automated vehicles, manufacturers have a variety of out of box hardware to choose from such as LiDAR, radar, cameras, GPS, etc. The software, however, must be built from scratch. Consequently, the bulk of development time is spent building, testing, and debugging software. For safety-critical systems such as automated emergency braking or lane keeping assist, every line of code must be tested and verified before it can be deployed.
Every manufacturer builds these systems from the ground up, spending years learning sensors, testing code, and integrating hardware, says Harbrick co founder Josh Hartung, It’s just unnecessary. Adds co founder Bobby Hambrick, With PolySync, they can literally have a car driving itself in a few hours.
Harbrick is anticipating the official release of Version 1.0 of PolySync in February 2015. The buzz the software is generating in both the technology and automotive industries is huge. Hartung believes the future of automated vehicles is ready to grow. He adds, PolySync is the platform that will take automated driving from science project to mass deployment.