Aurora Labs fighting recalls by optimizing automotive software development

The Israeli company’s vehicle software intelligence platform utilizes AI to improve car software quality, safety and security

Yafit Ovadia 09:0120.02.22

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Company: Aurora Labs

Products: Auto Detect, Auto Update, Auto Validate

Raised: $23 million in Series B; $34 million total from LG Technology Ventures, Porsche SE, Toyota Tsusho, UL Ventures, FM Capital, MizMaa Ventures, Maniv Mobility, Champion Motors, Marius Nacht

Founded: December 2016

Founders: Zohar Fox (CEO), Ori Lederman (COO)

Automotive updates should be made easier and cheaper - that is the vision guiding Aurora Labs. The company, which was founded in 2016 by friends Zohar Fox (CEO) and Ori Lederman (COO) combines machine learning, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity all in one - with its target being the automotive industry. Aurora Labs' vehicle software intelligence platform utilizes AI to improve car software quality, safety and security, enabling new mobility that can protect autonomous and connected vehicles’ updates, while helping generate new revenue streams.

The abundance of bugs and recalls in automotive software is rampant, and in order to offer a solution, the company chose to focus on lending a hand to developers by analyzing lines of source code. “We wanted to make it better, so we’ve employed experts in line of code intelligence to analyze coding behavior, and bring actionable data to developers to help them perform better and conduct better updates and diagnostics to the actual software,” Fox told CTech in an interview.

Aurora Labs co-founder and CEO Zohar Fox. Photo: Bar Stefanski

The company offers three different SaaS (Software as a Service) products. “Connected vehicles and safety systems are all trying to save lives. The software is a platform that is based on lines of code technology, and enhances vehicles’ overall software management. Our products dramatically reduce the costs associated with software updates, and also optimize remote services and diagnostics, like a remote garage, for example - so that technicians can actively see issues and resolve them,” he added. The software functions for all connected vehicles.

The company’s products include Auto Detect, which accelerates glitch detection and downtime prediction from months in advance to real-time during testing and while on the road; Auto Validate, which works to validate, optimize, and reduce certification and safety-test time and costs by up to 100-fold; and Auto Update, an AI-based solution that issues updates, and saves data and cuts down on hardware costs. Aurora Labs claims that each offering will reduce the cost of vehicles, slashing prices by $2,500 per vehicle.

An AI-based revolution

Aurora Labs is privately-held and has already conducted three funding rounds, including its most recent $23 million Series B during the third quarter of 2020. So far, the company has raised a total of $34 million from investors including LG Technology Ventures, Porsche SE, Toyota Tsusho, UL Ventures, FM Capital, MizMaa Ventures, Maniv Mobility, Champion Motors, and the angel investor Marius Nacht of aMoon. As for plans on going public, nothing has quite solidified yet. “Currently, we are at an inflection point, and are focusing on deploying our products globally to customers,” Fox said.

The company's product assists with vehicle software updates. Photo: Aurora Labs

For the next three years, the company plans on providing its systems to hundreds of millions of vehicles, and being a key software intelligence platform for developers all around the world. Aurora also plans to expand to additional markets in the West, including the U.S. Currently, its 65-person team is partly based in Tel Aviv, while it also has offices in Japan, Germany, and Macedonia. It is currently recruiting additional employees.

“Mobility is undergoing a revolution; that revolution isn’t mechanical, but software-based. A new fuel is required to power these vehicles, and that’s AI,” the company concluded.