European automakers face increasing tariffs and mounting pressure from American and Asian competitors in the autonomous driving race. In response, leading Swiss AI startup Lightly has launched LightlyEdge, a new edge-based data collection solution that could help level the playing field.
At a time when Bosch is cutting 12,000 jobs and Mercedes is offering up to 500,000 euros for voluntary exits, clearly being effective and efficient matters for automotive companies. Lightly’s innovation tackles a critical bottleneck in AI development: capturing only the data that truly matters, directly at the source. This offers a strategic advantage at a time when workforce reductions threaten to slow in-house development and widen the gap with faster-moving rivals.
As companies around the world race to develop safer autonomous vehicles, they are drowning in data and the resulting costs. While collecting large volumes of data is essential, the difficulty lies in identifying what's truly relevant. As AI models grow more sophisticated, so does the redundancy in the data feeding them. LightlyEdge solves this problem by making intelligent decisions about what data to keep at the moment of capture, before it enters the storage and processing pipeline.
LightlyEdge deploys intelligent models directly onto vehicles' cameras and sensors, analyzing video footage in real-time as it's being captured, automatically identifying rare and valuable scenarios - like a child at a crossroad or an accident in snowy conditions - while ignoring redundant data that adds no value to training datasets. This approach dramatically slashes unnecessary storage and bandwidth costs while ensuring training datasets become more comprehensive, diverse, and optimised for real-world driving conditions.
“This launch is a fantastic opportunity to increase development cycles for autonomous driving and driving assistance” said Matthias Heller, Co-Founder of Lightly. “With LightlyEdge, our partners can harness smarter, real-time data collection that not only accelerates AI model training but also provides a competitive edge against established industry giants. By focusing on quality data from uncommon scenarios and hazards, we're empowering a new era of innovation that will drive the future of mobility.”
European automotive manufacturers are currently working to maintain their position against competitors like Tesla, whose innovative ‘Active Learning’ approach - feeding only the most valuable data into AI models - has become a benchmark for the industry. While European companies have a rich history of engineering excellence, they now have an opportunity to utilise artificial intelligence's potential to overhaul their operations.
Building on what Lightly already achieved with LightlyOne in data centres, LightlyEdge shifts the intelligence right to where it's needed – the edge devices in vehicles themselves. It gives developers real-time feedback and smart capture capabilities directly on the road. With its easy-to-use interface, teams can quickly deploy their AI models, keep an eye on them, and make them better over time – all of which dramatically speeds up how fast they can bring innovations to life.
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