SOMERVILLE, Mass., Sept. 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WaveSense, Inc., making the world a safer place through commercialization of its military-proven ground-penetrating radar (GPR) for autonomous vehicles, today announced it has closed a $3M seed round. Led by Rhapsody Venture Partners, with participation from Vas Ventures, NOMO Ventures, and other leading VC firms, this investment will fund WaveSense’s development of a commercial version of its military proven sensor.
Using ground-penetrating radar, WaveSense creates subterranean maps by scanning up to 10 feet below the roadbed to lock on to unique underground features like soil layers, rocks and pipes. As the vehicle drives, the WaveSense sensor scans the road bedding about 126 times per second and compares the scans to its onboard map to determine the exact vehicle position in relation to the vehicle’s road lane. This mode of navigation has been utilized by the US military and demonstrated to be accurate to within a few centimeters at standard highway speeds, even during night time whiteout snowstorm conditions.
“The opportunity and challenges for autonomous vehicles are well documented,” said Carsten Boers, Managing Partner of Rhapsody Venture Partners. “The focus in our evaluation of WaveSense was to understand where this new sensor fits within the existing sensor stack. Current sensors, from LIDAR, through cameras, to automotive radar, all face a similar challenge: to make sense of the constantly changing environment we drive through. One day you have leaves on top of road markings, the next day you’re driving through a snow storm. WaveSense addresses an unsolved problem in a unique way: To place the vehicle securely in all conditions, it looks underneath the road. Doing so is necessary for safe autonomous driving and naturally is also an important safety feature also for assisted driving. We’re very excited to help WaveSense bring this military grade technology to the broader market.”
“We greatly appreciate the support from our new investors as we now move forward aggressively to buildout the WaveSense team and our product commercialization timelines,” said Tarik Bolat, WaveSense CEO. “This technology has been proven to be highly effective and accurate by our military in the variety of harsh conditions in Afghanistan, and we are working closely with a number of automotive OEMs and industry partners to integrate WaveSense as a key lifesaving technology for the booming self-driving market.”
About WaveSense
WaveSense is the first company in the world to offer self-driving vehicle navigation based on ground penetrating radar at commercial scale. Its mission is to enable self-driving vehicles to navigate any road safely, precisely and reliably in all conditions. It is the exclusive worldwide license holder for utilizing ground-penetrating radar for localization of vehicles. WaveSense was founded in 2017 and is based on technology developed for and deployed with the US military. For more information on WaveSense, visit www.wavesense.io and follow us on Twitter at @wavesense_inc.
About Rhapsody Venture Partners
Rhapsody Venture Partners is an early-stage venture investor in Cambridge, MA that funds applied science and engineering companies. Rhapsody’s team works side-by-side with entrepreneurs to develop industry partnerships that accelerate commercialization and growth. Rhapsody’s portfolio includes high-impact companies such as Apeel Sciences, LiquiGlide, Manus Bio, Hazel Technologies and Fluid Efficiency. For more: www.RhapsodyVP.com and on Twitter at @rhapsodyvp
Media Contacts:
Susan Donahue
Skyya for WaveSense
+1 (646) 454-9378
susan.donahue@skyya.com