Simulation automation startup Foretellix Ltd. today announced that it has raised $42 million from investors to grow the adoption of its software in the auto sector.

The investment, which was led by 83North, comes as an extension to a Series C round Foretellix announced in May. The round also included contributions from Nvidia Corp. as well as several major players in the auto sector. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., commercial vehicle maker Isuzu Motors Ltd. and Volvo Car AB were among the participants.

Foretellix provides a software platform that helps automakers and their suppliers design autonomous vehicles. The platform can also support ADAS, or advanced driver assistance system, projects. An ADAS is a device that can be installed in a vehicle to equip it with partially autonomous driving features such as automated parking.

Before automakers can bring a partly or fully autonomous vehicle to market, they have to verify that it’s safe. They do so by creating software environments that contain virtual roads complete with simulated pedestrians, cars and traffic signs. An automaker’s engineers test their autonomous driving system in those simulations to identify scenarios where it may malfunction.

Foretellix sells a software platform, Foretify, that promises to simplify vehicle safety testing. The platform includes a programming language that allows an automaker’s developers to specify what kind of simulations they wish to run. Using that code, Foretify automatically generates up to millions of vehicle simulations that each have different road and driving conditions.

Automating the task of generating simulations saves time for developers. Additionally, it allows them to more thoroughly test the safety of their autonomous driving software. 

When developers create simulations manually, they may overlook some of the driving situations in which a new vehicle should be tested. That can lead to unaddressed safety issues. By automating the workflow, an automaker’s software teams can create more simulations than would be otherwise practical and thus detect a larger number of potential malfunctions. 

Foretellix provides several productivity features to ease developers’ work. In its Foretify platform, software teams can preview a simulation before running it to check for issues. If an error still finds its way into the simulation, a built-in debugging tool powered by artificial intelligence can help identify the source of the malfunction.

Automakers test their vehicles’ safety with a combination of simulated and real-world test drives. When a vehicle experiences a potential safety issue during a real-world test, engineers often seek to replicate the incident in simulation to collect additional technical data. Foretify can create many simulated versions of a real-world test, each with slightly different conditions, to support safety testing initiatives.

“Our solutions address the largest barriers to safe large-scale deployment of autonomous vehicles while dramatically reducing development costs,” said Foretellix co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Ziv Binyamini. “This funding round will secure our long-term sustained growth.”

Foretellix will use the proceeds from the round to enhance Foretify’s feature set. According to the company, the development effort is set to place a particular emphasis on adding more generative AI capabilities. Foretellix will reportedly also use a portion of the funding to grow its workforce. 

Image: Fortellix