An Investor's Perspective —
Automotive, Aerospace, and Beyond
At the intersection of embedded software, robotics algorithms, and functional safety
The recent safety certification of Apex.OS has validated our deep beliefs in the capabilities of the Apex.AI team and the importance of its mission to enable safe, secure, certified software for autonomous mobility. Synergizing at the intersection of embedded software, robotics algorithms, and functional safety, Apex.AI is driven forward by seasoned robotics experts and automotive industry leaders - a now widely-recognized group we’ve enjoyed teaming closely with since Airbus Ventures’ initial investment in November 2018.
“The team at Airbus Ventures is eager to see this partnership continue to evolve and flourish, fully supporting Apex.AI as it advances and scales its product portfolio.”
Collaborating with global customers, like Toyota’s Woven Planet, Apex.AI is slated to develop a production autonomy stack designed to enable best practices across the automotive industry. At Airbus Ventures, we recognize and welcome that with this new collaboration the company’s technology has all the more scalability to power beyond the boundaries of just the automotive sector.
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This alliance signifies a major accomplishment for Apex.AI. The team at Airbus Ventures is eager to see this partnership continue to evolve and flourish, fully supporting Apex.AI as it advances and scales its product portfolio.
One of the most striking components of the Apex.AI product series is its applicability to a diverse set of areas. When Airbus Ventures was first introduced to the technology, the prospective strategic value across our portfolio was immediately evident. The flexibility of the technology speaks volumes for its ongoing potential.
“When Airbus Ventures was first introduced to the technology, the prospective strategic value across our portfolio was immediately evident.”
Apex.OS can extend across ecosystems, addressing safety-critical mobility applications from agriculture, rail, robotics, industrial, construction, and aerospace systems. For example, mission-critical autonomous systems across the board, including advanced avionics for eVTOLs, are currently using ROS and are thus not commercial grade. We believe that Apex.OS can save precious development time (in turn, also reducing cost) when it comes to writing code for flying autonomous systems. Such systems, across industries, are becoming software-defined and Apex.OS can be a force multiplier when it comes to accelerating the democratization of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and other autonomous platforms.
Certified to the highest level of automotive safety
As a fork of open-source ROS 2, a widely used software framework for autonomy, the powerful commercial-grade Apex.OS framework is designed for mission-critical tasks and certified to the strictest ISO 26262 standards for autonomous driving; it was also recently certified by TÜV NORD to the highest level of automotive safety.
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Apex.OS also provides hardware abstraction, running on x86 and ARM, with major potential to reduce costs in comparison to legacy platforms with outdated software stacks. Apex.OS enables software reuse, increasing efficiency and drastically cutting the time from prototype to production.
“Apex.OS can extend across ecosystems, addressing safety-critical mobility applications from agriculture, rail, robotics, industrial, construction, and aerospace systems.”
Click here for more information about Airbus Ventures’ Series A investment.
By Claas Kohl and Charles Fages, Airbus Ventures | May 2021
