Autonomous driving: Bridgestone invests in Tier IV

Bridgestone Corporation is investing in Tier IV, Inc., a Japanese start-up engaged in the development of Autoware, the world’s first open-source software for autonomous driving. The investment is taking place as part of Tier IV’s US$87 million Series B funding round, which also includes additional support from existing investors Yamaha Motor and Sompo Holdings. Tier IV will use these funds, together with a Green Innovation Fund Projects grant from Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), to launch its $300 million Green Autonomous Driving project.

Sharing news of the new tie-in with Tier IV, Bridgestone explains that its decision to invest was based upon the expectation that the start-up’s expertise in autonomous driving technology will help accelerate development of advanced tyre technologies and next-generation mobility solutions. The two companies will co-create within Bridgestone Innovation Park, the global innovation centre that Bridgestone brought into full-scale operation in April. According to Tier IV, Bridgestone will conduct testing, verification, and validation of autonomous vehicles.

“This Green AD Project alongside the Series B fundraising will allow us to concentrate on technology advances, while continuing to provide our customers with selective solutions based on the current variants of our platform and reference design,” says Shinpei Kato, founder and chief technology officer of Tier IV. “Our platform is enabling our customers to develop their own autonomous driving components or build their own autonomous vehicles by extending our reference design so that they can save cost, optimise risk, and minimise time to market for their production.”