Audi sets up Silicon Valley office to develop automated driving systems for US market

Audi has opened an office in Silicon Valley that aims to adapt and develop advanced driver assistance systems for the U.S. market. 

The Audi Automated Driving Development (A2D2) R&D office will be located in San Jose and initially staffed with about 60 employees. The company said A2D2 will have the “flexibility to quickly develop new software and to collaborate with nearby startups for production-intent applications.”

This new R&D office is focused on advancing so-called Level 2 systems, a designation by the Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE), in which two primary functions are automated and still have a human driver in the loop at all times. There are five levels of automation under SAE’s definition. Level 4 means the vehicle can handle all aspects of driving in certain conditions without human intervention and is what companies like Argo AI, Aurora, Cruise and Waymo are working on. Level 5, which is widely viewed as a distant goal, would handle all driving in all environments and conditions.

The focus on Level 2 is an important distinction. Audi had developed a Level 3 automated system called Traffic Jam Pilot that was supposed to be in the latest-generation A8 that debuted in 2017. After numerous delays, Audi decided in May to scrap plans to roll out the Level 3 automated driving system. Traffic Jam Pilot theoretically allows the vehicle to operate on its own without the human driver keeping their eyes on the road. But it has never been commercially deployed. 

The company told TechCrunch back in May that the lack of a legal framework raised concerns about liability. To further complicate the problem, the A8 has been progressing through its generational life cycle. Audi was faced with continuing to pour money into the feature to adapt it without promise of a framework progressing.

Now, Audi has turned its attention and capital toward advanced driving assistance systems that can actually be launched in passenger vehicles. A2D2 will be the first office dedicated to developing ADAS hardware and software specifically for North American roads and driving behaviors, the company said.

“Given the rapid advancement of driver assistance technologies in North America, it’s important to be part of the latest breakthroughs, work with leading edge of technology startups and attract the top talent,” said Frank Grosshauser, senior director, ADAS, Audi of America.

The A2D2 office is hugely important to the further advancement of systems here in the U.S. in the interim, not just in terms of assisted driving but all of the various sensors and systems and how they can be brought together to further improve the driving experience, safety and use for our customers in the not too distant future, an Audi spokesperson wrote in an email.

The A2D2 office has outfitted several Audi Q7 development vehicles with roof-mounted sensor kits to collect data to develop various cloud-based automated driver-assistance functions planned for introduction by 2023, the company said. The A2D2 development vehicles are wrapped in a QR code that links to a web page where people can get updates on Audi’s progress. 

Audi is also working on automated driving technology with Car.Software, a newly founded Volkswagen Group unit. All Volkswagen Group brands have concentrated their automated driving development activities within this unit, the company said. 

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A Grab spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company will not be shutting down offices, and that this is the last organization-wide layoff the company will perform this year.

“We do not face capitalization issues. We conducted the layoffs to become a leaner and more efficient organization and we did this by sunsetting non-core projects, consolidating teams and pivoting to focus on deliveries,” the spokesperson said. “We remain laser-focused on adapting our core businesses of transport, deliveries, payments and financial services to address the challenges and opportunities of the new normal.”

She added that the company will talk to affected employees over the next few days.

Grab is the largest ride-hailing platform in Southeast Asia, and like other travel-related companies, including Uber, Lyft, Oyo and Airbnb, its on-demand ride business has been hit hard by the pandemic. Grab also operates several other businesses, however, including deliveries and digital financial services, which is is currently reallocating resources toward because demand for them has increased during the pandemic and stay-at-home orders.

How Grab adapted after COVID-19 hit its ride-hailing business

In his announcement, Tan wrote, “Since February, we have seen the stark impact of COVID-19 on businesses globally, ours included. At the same time, it has become clear that the pandemic will likely result in a prolonged recession and we have to prepare for what may be a long recovery period.”

“Over the past few months, we have reviewed all costs, cut back on discretionary spending, and implemented pay cuts for senior management. In spite of all this, we recognize that we still have to become leaner as an organization in order to tackle the challenges of the post-pandemic economy.”

He added that Grab will sunset some “non-core projects,” consolidate functions and reduce team sizes. It is also reallocating more resources to its on-demand delivery verticals.

“We were able to save many jobs through this redeployment of resources and it helped limit the scope of the reduction exercise to just under 5 percent,” Tan wrote.

Grab employees who are laid off will receive severance pay, as well as an enhanced separation payment; a waiver of annual cliffs for equity vesting; medical insurance coverage until the end of the year; encashment of unused annual leave and GrabFlex credits; and, for expecting parents, encashment of their parental benefits, as of the last day of employment.

A new Silicon Valley venture report shocks — because of how little the pandemic has impacted dealmaking

The law firm Fenwick & West has published some new data to highlight how Covid-19 has impacted the world of venture capital in Silicon Valley. The biggest surprise? It’s how little impact the global pandemic seems to have had on dealmaking this spring.

Consider first that valuations in April were actually higher than in March, and that despite massive layoffs in the tech sector, so-called up-rounds only declined modestly, from 72% in March to 70% in April.

In fact, though you’d think the massive disruptions prompted by virus would accelerate things wildly, it looks more like the steady continuation of a trend that began last year, when 83% of financings saw companies receive higher valuations.

We can’t pinpoint when this started based on Fenwick’s report, but our guess is that it kicked off with WeWork’s pulled IPO last fall, which seemingly reminded investors that what goes up — and up — sometimes comes down fast, too.

What about good old-fashioned down rounds? You’d probably guess that a lot of startups — including those in the travel industry or that count the travel industry as a customer — were impacted severely when the coronavirus took hold in the U.S. But again, Fenwick’s data, at least, tells a different story. The number of deals that were marked down by investors accounted for just 12% of all deal volume in April; that’s even lower than in March, when 16% of companies experienced down rounds.

It does make sense, considering that the data is specific to April alone, especially when accounting for the many startups that have been thrown a longer lifeline by their investors in the firm of extensions to earlier rounds. Investors don’t like seeing their deals marked down by new investors, of course. The thinking, too, is just to get the companies through this rough patch, then figure out what’s what. (Relatedly, there was a sizable increase in flat rounds: 18% in April, compared to 13% in March and 9% last year.)

More astonishing was the sheer pace of investing into startups in Silicon Valley. Though there was talk about investors needing to stop and assess the health of their portfolio companies from mid-March to early April, it seems now that VCs never really stepped off the gas. According to Fenwick, the number of deals actually increased from 54 in March to 64 in April; that nearly matches the 65 deals per month that were completed last year, when the world wasn’t grappling with an epidemic.

For what it’s worth, many of these were later-stage deals. Fenwick’s data shows the percentage of Series D and E+ deals increased to 38% of all financings in April, up from 21% in March and the highest that figure has been since August 2018, when Series D/E+ deals combined for 42% of all financings.

In short, VCs were plowing more money into what they see as sure things — and into management teams they weren’t meeting for the first time over Zoom.

Either way, as one of the reports authors — longtime attorney Barry Kramer — noted in a follow-up email, averages “can obscure” the disparities in how companies are being impacted right now, with some benefiting from the stay-work-learn-at-home shift, while others, including biotech research, manufacturing and hardware being hurt by it.

“We aren’t seeing massive upheaval or panic in the industry,” however, wrote Kramer. VCs are instead “adjusting to the current situation.”

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