Rivian Buys Synthetic Data Startup To Boost Its Autonomy Ambitions

• Rivian just bought a British startup to help it build the backbones of autonomous driving.
• The startup specializes in "high fidelity spatial generation," which are basically lifelike 3D simulations.
• The acquisition could help Rivian test edge cases before they occur. 

Rivian has acquired U.K.-based AI startup Third Dimension to help it accelerate the development of autonomous driving for its electric trucks and SUVs. The deal could give Rivian a way to turn real-world driving footage into realistic 3D simulations, potentially helping it train and validate self-driving systems faster, TechCrunch reported Thursday.

Third Dimension basically uses AI to turn images and videos into lifelike 3D environments. Its technology was initially developed to accelerate video game production, but Rivian plans to use it to create simulations based on actual driving scenarios, according to the outlet.

The company previously said in a blog post that its lifelike simulations could teach robotic systems to handle edge cases before they happen in the real world. In Rivian's case, the vehicle's autonomous driving system could train on things like swerving cyclists and erratic drivers before waiting for such things to happen actually.

Rivian currently offers Autonomy+, which allows hands-free highway driving and automatic lane changes on command. It wants to further develop this system to be even more capable, like Tesla’s Full Self Driving (Supervised), where it can drive point-to-point hands-free with supervision. That development work is also central to its planned robotaxi partnership with Uber, which is expected to put up to 50,000 R2 robotaxis on the road in 2028.

Third Dimension's 15-member team, most of whom are based in the U.K., will be led by Rivian’s Senior Vice President of Autonomy and AI James Philbin.

“For us, it’s about taking real scenarios, but making them simulatable,” Philbin told TechCrunch. “These are not synthetic kind of video game styles, they’re real things that happen in the world, but now we get that extra dial of being able to move the cameras around, shift other agents, have maybe different lighting or weather conditions. So it’s a really powerful tool for us,” he added.

What he’s basically referring to is that self-driving systems need to be tested against an enormous range of road conditions, including unusual situations that are difficult to encounter during everyday driving. Simulations let engineers recreate those scenarios without waiting for them to happen on public roads.

Rivian already gets swathes of driving data from its current vehicles on the road. According to Philbin, Rivian receives more than 400,000 driving sequences daily from customer vehicles whose owners have enabled external camera sharing. Third Dimension's technology could help turn that data into more realistic simulations, and we'll see if this really helps move the needle for Rivian to rival Waymo, Tesla, and others in this space.

Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com

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