The growing field of teleoperations enables humans in remote locations to take over the controls of an Autonomous Vehicle (AV) when necessary, such as when lane markings are missing or an unexpected detour. Ottopia, an Israeli technology startup focused on remote assistance for self-driving cars, uses a combination of Artificial Intelligence and old-fashioned human intelligence to work together for remote intervention. The company was founded last year by the former head of the AVs and Robotics branch of the Israeli Defense Forces, Leon Altarac, and the former head of Product Management for Microsoft's cyber-security unit, Amit Rosenzweig. They believe that this combination of AI and human remote drivers is what it will take to solve the "last mile" towards fully autonomous vehicles. To learn more, we spoke to Amit Rosenzweig, CEO and co-founder of Ottopia.
Could you tell us about Ottopia and what are you aiming to solve?
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We tackle the most difficult 1 per cent of AV performance with a remote human operator.
Ottopia helps to bridge the performance gap of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). We tackle the most difficult 1 per cent of AV performance with a remote human operator. A remote human is called whenever and wherever the AV isn't sure what to do on the road. The trigger could also come from passengers in the AV. The approach is called "Teleoperation."
Ottopia's vision is to become the Teleoperation-as-a-Service of choice for every organization in the world that wishes to quickly and safely deploy AVs. We pride ourselves on focusing on safety & security (and having the right architecture to support that) which are the two most important criteria for customers who develop and test AVs.
There are other tele-operating solutions out there under development. In what ways have you advanced yours?
We invest a lot in smart integration with existing AV stacks which include a great deal of AI. The secret sauce is knowing how to balance between commands that the remote human issues e.g. "move forward now" and the AV's knowledge about its surroundings e.g. "there's a pedestrian right in front of the vehicle." Other teleoperation solutions focus on letting the remote human have full control over the vehicle, which isn't considered a safe thing to do.
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By GlobalDataWhat stage have you reached with it?
Version 1 of our product will be demonstrated by the end of Q1, 2019.
Who are your customers?
We are in talks with car and truck OEMs, Tier1s, and fleet managers.
What is the best way for a human to intervene?
There is no "One ring to rule them all" here. In principle, the best way is to quickly understand the scene and provide a new path or choose a path from existing options or use a steering wheel, etc. but still keep all the vehicle safety systems in check.
We hear that Ottopia recently closed $3 million in seed funding. How will you invest it?
We plan to expand the R&D team in Israel and also work more closely with customers.
In terms of recruiting, what skills are you looking for and is it a challenge to find the right people?
We hire for grit and for creativity – experience in the autonomous vehicle industry is an added bonus.
We hire for grit and for creativity – experience in the autonomous vehicle industry is an added bonus. Specific programming languages aren't the issue here, as people who are extremely intelligent and have buckets of motivation can typically learn anything fairly quickly.
Finding the right people is always a challenge for any company, but we consider ourselves lucky in building up a great team at Ottopia and expect that to continue.
Getting it just right at the crucial moment must be a challenge. Could you share any lessons that you have learned about tele-operations?
My co-founder and CTO, Leon Altarac, comes with a decade of experience building and deploying mission-critical teleoperation solutions for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Up until recently he was head of the AV and Robotics branch of the IDF. As such, he knows that the safest course of action is to first have the AV come to a full stop, and then request assistance. Second, end to end network latency must be kept to a minimum. Third, the right user interface must be built, keeping information noise levels to a minimum. Lastly, if the human is wrong, the AV should prevent the wrong command from being executed. These are our focus areas at Ottopia.
Security within the connected car continues to cause debate. Is there such a thing as a cyber-secure car?
In short – no. No system is bulletproof against cyber-attacks, especially if the adversary is a nation-state actor, and that includes connected cars. However, there could be significant hurdles that prevent attackers from achieving their goals, such that only numerous and very well funded groups can succeed in their malevolent tasks.
What's next for Ottopia?
Completing Version 1 of the product, expanding the R&D group and signing deals with big customers in several countries.
