Aquarium scores $2.6M seed to refine machine learning model data
Aquarium, a startup from two former Cruise employees, wants to help companies refine their machine learning model data more easily and move the models into production faster. Today the company announced a $2.6 million seed led by Sequoia with participation from Y Combinator and a bunch of angel investors, including Cruise co-founders Kyle Vogt and Dan Kan.
When the two co-founders, CEO Peter Gao and head of engineering Quinn Johnson, were at Cruise they learned that finding areas of weakness in the model data was often the problem that prevented it from getting into production. Aquarium aims to solve this issue.
The GM-backed company logged more than 770,000 miles last year, while its rival Waymo LLC drove just under 629,000. Both drove hundreds of thousands of miles more than other top brands in the space.
Data on self-driving technology filed with the state of California also showed GM's Cruise unit more than doubled how far its cars can go before a safety driver needs to take over.
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Five lidar firms went public through special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) in 2020, and one venture capitalist told Insider more could do so this year.
While Tesla CEO Elon Musk thinks self-driving cars don t need lidar, nearly all of his competitors disagree.
That means lidar could play a major role in an autonomous-vehicle industry that could be worth $170 billion by 2040.