Three Driverless-Car Tech Startups Selected for U-Mich. Incubation Program

The University of Michigan has selected three Silicon Valley startups—Civil Maps, PolySync and Zendrive—to further develop their automated and connected vehicle technologies as part of the school’s TechLab initiative this autumn.

The technology incubator, which U-M launched earlier this year, allows participants to work for a semester with engineering students who are interested in their technologies. Following the independent study course, students present a report on the technology and its commercialization potential to the company, university faculty, venture capitalists and other experts. Some students went on to work for the startups as interns.

The companies also have access to U-M’s 32-acre Mcity proving grounds for autonomous vehicles.

Zendrive, which also was part of the first TechLab class this year, was founded by former Google and Facebook employees. The company is developing technology that uses a smartphone app to measure how a driver’s phone use affects driving behavior.

Civil Maps is using artificial intelligence and sensor data to create more precise 3-D maps. Ford Motor Co. invested in the company earlier this year.  

PolySync is developing a high-bandwidth operating system for self-driving vehicles. The platform treats actuators, algorithms and sensors as plug-and-play devices to make it easier to implement changes in the system.