Porsche, Toyota Invest In Aurora Labs’ ‘Self-Healing’ Automotive System

Aurora Labs, an Israeli-founded startup that developed automotive software fixes and predictive maintenance for connected vehicles, said this week that it secured $23 million in Series B funding. The round was jointly led by LG Technology Ventures, the investment arm of the LG Group, and Marius Nacht, co-founder of Check Point Software Technologies, with Porsche SE, Toyota Tsusho (a member of Toyota Group), UL Ventures, and existing investors also participating in the round. 

Founded in 2016, Aurora Labs says its machine-learning algorithms uniquely address all three stages of an automotive maintenance system to detect, repair, and seamlessly implement over-the-air (OTA) updates to faults in the software. The company dubbed it “self-healing software.”

“This cross-industry commitment from investors is evidence of the need to continuously improve the quality of software, keep it safe, secure and updated in all devices, with particular emphasis on vehicles as the car becomes electrified and connected and the amount of vehicle software grows exponentially,” said Zohar Fox, Aurora Labs’ co-founder and CEO.

Fox said that as manufacturers plan for new global regulations (UNECE WP.29) that require traceable and secure software updates for the millions of lines of automotive software code in vehicles today, “Aurora Labs becomes a strategic partner helping manufacturers differentiate and update their vehicles and devices and create recurring revenue streams, going beyond what Tesla has already demonstrated.”

The adoption of the regulations will require auto manufacturers to have a deep understanding of software behavior in order to obtain the data and evidence required for certification.

“With the recent adoption of the UNECE WP.29 regulation for over-the-air updates, which goes into effect in Japan in 2021, Toyota Tsusho will work with Aurora Labs to reduce the costs of updates to the entire vehicle and to validate changes in the lines-of-code for our vehicles to remain compliant as over-the-air updates are delivered to cars,” said Mr. Mitsuhiro Tsubakimoto, CEO for Chemicals & Electronics Division from Toyota Tsusho.

Lutz Meschke, a member of the board of management of Porsche SE, said that “in the future software will be the major differentiating factor in cars and efficient software updates will play an increasingly important role.”

“Through our investment in Aurora Labs, we extend our venture portfolio by an investment in a market with strong growth potential. Porsche SE expects such services to become increasingly relevant for automotive manufacturers such as the Volkswagen Group,” he added.

“As the world becomes more connected and edge computing more complex, we need advanced, predictive security solutions to keep us all safe,” said Rear Admiral (Ret.) Ophir Shoham who co-led the round on behalf of Nacht. “Aurora Labs’ Self-Healing Software with its unique and proven OTA capabilities, backed with very solid IP, has great potential for the advanced automotive industry and for IoT applications.”