Member Info for TheLongestShot

Yes, Red, it is a gamble when you're management are so invested in a firm and they can see that the hill that they are climbing is their last. They can see that the competition are climbing a bigger hill and we are only part way up. Now they have signaled that they can't take the company to profitability, the truth about their lost customers will be plain soon even to their staunchest fans when we start announcing BMW wins. Let's hope the staff in Smart Eye have a comfortable landing

Terry, I believe that SEYE were penciled in for the later Apollo spacecraft they were sending to Mars, but that program got cancelled by Nixon

Sorry I forgot the links

https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/news/2020/09/Volkswagen-CarSoftware-Org-acquires-camera-software-business-area-from-HELLA.html

https://www.hella.com/hella-com/en/press/Company-29-09-2020-19080.html

Hyms,
3 yeses

Running that team must have been expensive and if they have strong competition and AV is receding rapidly, this was there least worst scenario, certainly better than not selling any software. Hella suffered with the downturn and have had to let a lot of staff go this gets them through a rough spot.

So VW’s software arm is purchasing the front camera software business from a German parts and lights company for approx € 100 m. Why is this a big thing? Well car companies became just metal benders and assemblers, with more and more of the components being the valuable part of the BoM. By taking back software, especially the part that does ADAS and automated driving, they will once again own the value in the car.

In recent posts I have discussed how rather than multiple discrete computers with a single function, automakers are moving towards, fewer centralised domain computers, of course that also centralises the software, if this is owned by the Tier1 then what is there for the car company. Tesla, originally started with buying in their software – early vehicles were “Mobileye Inside” until Tesla added that functionality to their own software stack, VW is now doing the same. ADAS and Autonomous driving software development isn’t cheap.

Who else is in this field and what is the future? Mobileye had an early lead, Qualcomm are positioning themselves with the partnership with Veoneer. Volvo and Geely had Zenuity as a JV with Veoneer but that has fallen apart. Mercedes have now partnered with NVidia. Aptiv have a JV with Hyundai in Motional. Where does that leave Bosch and Continental? Well they will both be burned by the potential loss of VW business. Conti appeared to pull back from DMS as many staff joined SEE, probably as part of a future licensing deal? Bosch’s logo didn’t appear on recent slides, so either we have fallen out with them, or an NDA is active? Of course VW will not have dropped them entirely, but the profit on cameras, mountings wiring, PCBs and packaging is not as good if you aren’t selling the software to put on them.

So does this mean that we will need to work with VW’s “Car.Software Org” as a new Tier 1 to support the entire VW group? I am looking forward to that RMS

So Toyota is about identifying patterns of drivers looking out of the window at Mt Fuji and reacting or compensating based on surrounding vehicles doing the same. (The translation is painful to read)

Hyms, it is not Star Wars, its Blade Runner. Just tell the machine, "page 7 right, right, zoom and enhance"

Not a new article but still relevant.

https://jalopnik.com/automation-transformed-how-pilots-fly-planes-now-the-s-1834176244/amp

Paul remind us that he wants to do licensing rather than have to stand-up a
... new mobile phone company, new TV company, new tablet company, new computer monitor company, new Aircraft component company, new simulator company, new crane company, new ship company, ... what did I miss?

Anyway, we couldn't be a monopoly, these are figures from an independent analyst, named Colin (2019 edition)

Jedi mind tricks, "Look somewhere else, this is not the monopoly you were looking for"

JC it is good to see, saddle vehicles getting a form of Adas. I didn't think they would get eyestracking and given the huge variability of helmet designs and possible decoration even tracking the face position would be hard. It looks like markers need to be applied to the helmet to give it a reference point. So it looks like Seeing Machines are not involved

Hey Gho5t, just realised I just got two candles now so I'm taking off the training wheels ;)

Hi Gosh(darnint),
Yes a strange investor platform to use, we hardly meet their requirements, we are long past the VC stage!

I imagine it was too help fill their program and gave a bit of variety from Proactive whilst getting our name out.

Hi Ghost,
Have you been haunting this board for a while or is this this your first time rattling your chains?

We'd like to know how you found this gem. Since the company has been a bit shy recently.

Phil, If I was Paul and under a strict NDA and couldn't even mention the Tier 1 or the OEM and certainly not in the days of weeks before a huge launch. Then I might just make a Bosch shaped hole in my next presentation!

I know what you mean about the platform they were on, I would expect that with the companies that Seeing Machines are working with now, we could afford a better class of "investor".

I suspect it may have had more to do with the calendar and Covid, this was the best platform that they could get in a narrow window between some deals coming out and year end results.

And since the regulars on here are just that - regulars, it is good to widen the share ownership to get a bit more demand priced in, since we are currently so far behind where we should be valuing the company.

Jimbo,

We should doff our caps to our masters and thank them for 4.65 which does feel a lot better than the 3 we were used to. But something is missing.

A one would be a nice start, 2 may make me smile, but really I desire a 3 or more in front of that four.

That was not planned to be poetry

Gosh, We've seen the cash at the end of June, we know that they reduced costs and got support through the pandemic from the Aussie government, we have seen the cars that are starting production... NOW ... and not low volume ones either. We know that the hard work of optimising the software for multiple platforms is done, we don't have to travel much, few hotel expenses, and we don't need to find the automakers - they and the Tier 1s all know who we are.

We has $5 million extra on licensing recently and teh fleet numbers are rising - Terry can show his working, those additional sales really add up in the upfront fees and the ongoing support contract for the monitoring.

I think what you are seeing is a company coming out of stealth, they were quiet for a long time to hide the gains that they were working on. Now it will take SEYE a lot of time and money to catch up on any one of our very strong pillars (or legs)

Thanks Click, that is a great article, and good to see that Seeing Machines are sponsoring his Podcast, a fast safer way to get your name known to drivers and to get real advice out there to change some opinions before they get too ingrained