German car parts maker ZF has taken a 6 percent stake in South Korean AI-based automotive vision processing company StradVision.

The stake is aimed at strengthening ZF’s ecosystem for automated driving Level 3 and Level 4 systems. Perception software such as developed by StradVision is designed to enable features and functions to meet emerging regulatory safety standards and automated driving needs.

StradVision’s SVNet software allows vehicles to accurately detect and identify objects — such as other vehicles, lanes, pedestrians, animals, free space, traffic signs, and lights — even in harsh weather conditions or poor lighting. 

The software relies on deep learning-based perception algorithms, which requires a relatively small amount of memory and has low power consumption. The software supports a variety of hardware platforms and can also be customised and optimised for other hardware systems.

The StradVision software is currently used in high-volume models of ADAS and autonomous driving vehicles.

Autonomous driving and vehicle software are among the technology fields within the ZF product portfolio. ZF’s AD system solutions for the automotive and mobility sectors include high-performance computers such as the ZF ProAI, automotive software supporting ADAS and AD functions, sensors like camera, radar and LiDAR, and smart actuators.

“We are proud to count ZF as one of our strategic investors,” said Junhwan Kim, CEO at StradVision. “Together with the global mobility specialist ZF, we will strive to speed up the market for autonomous driving with leading perception solutions.”

“The partnership with StradVision considerably extends our autonomous driving perception and sensor fusion capabilities,” said Marc Bolitho, head of Engineering of the Electronics and ADAS division at ZF Group. “Together with our sensors, middleware platform and high-performance computing solutions, this vision perception software expertise from StradVision can provide a key component of our environmental sensor fusion for shuttles, commercial and light vehicles that can be optimised for centralised electrical architectures.”