Tokyo, Japan, New York, NY and Seattle, WA (August 18 Japan/August 17 US, 2021) - Woven Planet Holdings, Inc. (“Woven Planet”), a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, announced the closing of the acquisition of CARMERA, a U.S.-based spatial AI company that specializes in developing scalable, next-generation mapping solutions for automated mobility, a proposed transaction previously announced in July 2021. Following its acquisition of Level 5, the automated driving division of Lyft Inc., this is the second acquisition for Woven Planet, a group that is focused on mobility innovations and investments in automated driving, robotics, smart cities and more.
The CARMERA team has been a long-standing, trusted partner to Woven Planet, and with the closing of the transaction, Woven Planet will immediately oversee their offices and operations in New York and Seattle. They will join Woven Planet’s Automated Mapping Platform (“AMP”) team, helping develop AMP to become the most globally comprehensive road and lane network HD map platform, enabling high-precision localization support to automated vehicles. CARMERA’s strengths in map updates, change management and camera-based crowdsourcing from fleets will complement and help expand upon the HD mapping platform Woven Planet has already built. Together with Level 5 and Toyota Research Institute (“TRI”), the addition of CARMERA will bring Woven Planet one step closer to achieving its vision “Mobility to Love, Safety to Live.”
The deal closure follows the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) review of the deal.
Comment from James Kuffner, CEO, Woven Planet
“This acquisition will accelerate our AMP initiative that will advance our mission to develop the safest mobility in the world at scale. Bringing CARMERA’s world-class engineers and experts into the fold—as well as additional technology resources and footprints in New York and Seattle— the Woven Planet team, alongside the team of TRI and Level 5, will help us reach our goal of providing the best globally comprehensive road and lane network HD map platform. We will transform the world we live in through mobility technologies that can bring about a happier, safer future for us all.”
About Woven Planet Group
Woven Planet Group represents a carefully curated blend of expertise and resources dedicated to bringing the vision of “Mobility to Love, Safety to Live” to life. Through innovations and investments in automated driving, robotics, smart cities and more, we are transforming how humankind lives, works, and moves. We exist to design, build, and deliver secure, connected, and sustainable mobility solutions that benefit all people worldwide. Founded in 2018 as Toyota Research Institute - Advanced Development (“TRI-AD”), Woven Planet is composed of four complementary companies: Woven Planet Holdings, Woven Core, Woven Alpha and Woven Capital. For more information, please visit: https://www.woven-planet.global/.
About CARMERA
CARMERA is a spatial AI company, built on the revolution of vehicular crowdsourcing and remote sensing to capture street-level change, at global breadth and high definition depth. CARMERA employs an open systems approach to working with the world’s leading automotive companies, commercial mobility operators, and mapping platforms. With a team hailing from leading geospatial, machine learning and computer vision organizations, and venture backing from Google Ventures among others, the company is headquartered in New York City and Seattle. CARMERA is the recipient of multiple industry awards, including Frost & Sullivan’s 2020 North American Mapping Company of the Year. For more information, please visit: https://www.carmera.com/.