After launching its first automotive closing yr, Alibaba is digging deeper into the car trade. The chinese internet and e-commerce behemoth is the lead investor in good automobile tech developer WayRay’s $ 18 million sequence B round, the startup announced.
based in 2012, WayRay makes holographic navigation techniques. consistent with its funding announcement, WayRay has already spent $ 10 million of its personal capital, as well as previous challenge funding, on the technology that underpins Navion, an augmented-fact dashboard that overlays guidelines and other knowledge onto a driver’s view of the street. the corporate plans to launch a consumer model of Navion in 2017.
In a ready statement, Alibaba workforce’s senior investment director, Ethan Xie, stated, “We believe there may be large potential in the building of best-area technology like augmented fact and its software to various industries, like WayRay’s AR navigation machine in the auto sector. the potential for augmented fact makes it an exhilarating and promising house.”
Alibaba made its debut in the automotive business ultimate summer season, when the RX5, a smart automobile it developed with SAIC (one among China’s “large four” state-owned auto manufacturers—opened for pre-orders. The RX5 uses Alibaba’s Yun working gadget and the company hopes to make the car part of an internet-of-things ecosystem with the intention to include its other sensible hardware and web services and products like Alipay.
but Alibaba’s smart cars are already up towards competitors from different large chinese tech corporations like LeEco, which bills its electric automobile LeSee as “the first mobility ecosystem on wheels,” and Baidu, which is growing good automotive know-how and self reliant automobiles with BAIC, any other of China’s giant 4 state-owned automakers.
WayRay also stated that it’s going to companion with Banma applied sciences—a three way partnership between Alibaba team and SAIC—to create an augmented-fact navigation and leisure system for a car to be able to be launched with the aid of Banma in 2018. WayRay claims that this is “the world’s first vehicle in-manufacturing with a holographic AR head-up show.”
Featured picture: WayRay
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