An Interview with Tripleye
Computer vision for autonomous driving and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems
We are delighted to welcome the team at Tripleye to our community at Spielfeld. Tripleye is a computer-vision start-up located in Karlsruhe and Berlin which focuses on computer vision for autonomous driving and ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems). Tripleye is currently in stealth mode.
The technology they create is purposed for the automation of industrial machines and cars, and the team was an integral part of the first low-latency real-time remote controlled run of a fully electric race car. Watch the video here to check out their work in action!
We had the pleasure of asking the guys a little bit about themselves, their work, and what projects and collaborations they have planned for the future.
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SF: Tell us a bit about how Tripleye got started. Who are your founders and what are their backgrounds?
Tripleye: It all started with Jens Schick who built the first autonomous car at Daimler in 1994. It was the first-ever AV (autonomous vehicle), a project called ‘Prometheus’ — ten years before the 2004 DARPA challenge. (Yes, the first AV was actually built in Europe. 😊)
After Daimler Jens got hired by Bosch to build its vision group from the ground up and left a few years later to launch Myestro Interactive, a research company exploring AVs’ sensing technologies. In 2019 Jens met with Francois, who had solid experience in building startups. Francois immediately saw the massive potential of the innovations built by Jens over the years, and they decided to start a new adventure together. That’s how Tripleye started!
SF: What does the wider Tripleye team look like and where are they located? What are their career backgrounds — how did you curate your team?
Tripleye: The Tripleye team is based in two main locations. The “tech” team, of about 20 employees, is sitting in Karlsruhe, close to the KIT, whereas the commercial operations team is at Spielfeld in Berlin. We also have a few people working remotely. We love open-mindedness and, that’s a big factor when it comes to hiring people 😉 — by the way we are hiring in Berlin!
SF: How would you summarize what you guys do? Can you give us some background on the type of technology and what it’s used for?
Tripleye: We are focusing on computer vision for autonomous driving and ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems), overcoming some of the main hurdles that make this technology very costly, hardware-intensive, and highly dependent on weather and environmental conditions, such as rain, dust, etc. We are working hard towards more software-oriented solutions, at a fair price for our customers.
Our technology has countless applications, from personal vehicles to heavy-duty equipment, for the construction or extraction industry for example, as well as for industrial sites.
SF: Your team was most recently a part of a groundbreaking remote control run of an electric race car. Very cool! How did you guys get involved with that project and what did you contribute?
Tripleye: Yes, this was a collaboration with grand touring car series DTM and Schaeffler, an automotive Tier 1. Tripleye provided the entire 3D vision system for the project. Don’t worry, it is not that racing cars are becoming autonomous, but many racing categories are exploring autonomous functions, such as the automation of penalties during the races (it still relies on human eyes today!).
The DTM project ran at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. It was a huge success and created a lot of emulation in the industry. We are now working to implement our sensing system in Formula One.
SF: What are some of the things that you’re currently working on? Are there any developing projects that you can give us a preview of?
Tripleye: We are currently working on further innovative solutions for autonomous driving, and also focusing on getting more and more customers onboard. I’m afraid that’s all we can say for now 😃…
SF: What does the future look like for your team?
Tripleye: The team will get bigger and bigger in the coming months, and we will continue making ourselves known to big automotive OEMs, and convince them that our technology is the best, most valid and cost-efficient solution. Our long-term goal? Becoming the leader in Sensing-as-a-System for high automation!
