Ushr, a mapping technology startup spun out of 3D geospatial firm GeoSpatial, raised $10m yesterday in a series A round featuring car manufacturer General Motors (GM).
The round was led by Forte Ventures and included fellow venture capital firms Enertech Capital and Emerald Technology Ventures, while GM participated through its strategic investment subsidiary, GM Ventures.
Ushr has developed high-definition mapping software for autonomous vehicles which has recorded every controlled access highway in the US and Canada to an error margin of less than four inches.
The maps currently work with automated vehicular safety features known as advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), but Ushr wants its technology to eventually cover the entire autonomous driving ecosystem.
The series A capital will fund construction of a fleet of data-collection vehicles, research into reducing the cost of data acquisition, and the testing of Ushr’s in-car software on automotive-grade trial hardware.
Sherwin Prior, managing director of GM Ventures said: “Ushr’s mapping data is an important piece of GM’s technology as we work on the path towards self-driving vehicles and these kinds of innovations bring us closer to that vision.”