Then more code has to be added on top of that for basic features such as radar or GPS.
Says Harbrick founder Josh Hartung, “We were working with the most advanced autonomous vehicle developers and they were doing all of this back end coding. Everyone’s code was different and incompatible. It was like, ‘what are we doing here?’ and this light bulb went off.” Hartung realized the solution was to make a standard operating system for cars similar to an operating system for a smart phone. Instead of engineers spending years creating and testing infrastructure, the back end could come pre-packaged, and they could start writing algorithms and adding features right off the bat.
PolySync supports all the major autonomous vehicle sensors such as Velodyne and ibeo LiDAR, Delphi and SMS radar, and many types of cameras, making it a true “plug and play” scenario. Even if there’s an obscure piece of hardware, says Hartung, it’s easy to add. “It’s just like app writing!”
While still in beta, the PolySync software has been used by Renesas for demo cars and by other confidential industry giants and OEMs. Thanks to their development and feedback, Harbrick has been able to craft a product that makes autonomous vehicle development fast, easy, reliable, and safe.
“All these big auto manufacturers talk about getting semi-autonomous cars on the road in 10 years. We think that with PolySync, they can make that happen. I actually think it could happen sooner,” says Hartung.