National Instruments (NI) has acquired monoDrive, a provider of ultra-high fidelity simulation software for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle development. 

The acquisition expands NI’s reach in the ADAS and simulation markets and will enable NI’s transportation customers to accelerate the development, test, and deployment of safer autonomous systems.

NI plans to build on monoDrive’s expertise in signal processing and advanced simulation to help customers accelerate the delivery of ADAS through high fidelity driving environments capable of modelling numerous sensors and thousands of real-time scenarios. 

Combined with NI’s software-connected systems, this approach aims to help companies in the transportation field streamline transitions between simulation, lab-based and physical testing environments. 

NI is also collaborating with Ansys, a specialist in engineering simulation. Ansys’ simulation solution enables sensor vendors to simulate the fundamental physics of their radars, LiDARs, and cameras from design through manufacturing. 

The two companies aim to recreate real-world simulation to validate sensors and inject data into software and hardware under test in real-time. The objective is to provide insights into how products will perform in market by bridging the worlds of simulated and physical test with more precise outcomes.

“We welcome the monoDrive employees to NI and look forward to collectively accelerating our growth ambitions for our transportation business,” said Chad Chesney, NI Vice President and General Manager of the transportation business unit. “The combination of monoDrive’s advanced software and NI’s strong position in ADAS will enable smooth transitions across our customer’s software validation workflows. This in turn delivers greater test efficiency, coverage and more realistic testing scenarios to help automotive manufacturers get safe and reliable autonomous vehicles on the road faster.”

“The monoDrive team is excited to join NI’s transportation business unit and accelerate the deployment of our high-fidelity simulation products,” said Celite Milbrandt, CEO of monoDrive. “Over the past five years, monoDrive has achieved a leadership position in vehicle simulation. We believe the combination of NI and monoDrive products will help our customers accelerate their goal of deploying safer vehicles.”

“Ansys is committed to building world-class products in an open-ecosystem. Collaborating with NI complements this strategy, positioning Ansys to provide more comprehensive solutions to our customers’ engineering challenges,” said Matt Zack, VP Corporate Development and Global Partnerships at Ansys. “Combining Ansys’ physics-based sensor simulation solutions with NI’s driving simulation and testing infrastructure will enable mutual customers to more quickly develop safer ADAS technology.”