NI Acquisition to ‘Advance ADAS and Automated Tech’

Paul Myles

TU-Editor

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5th May 2021

Automated test equipment specialist National Instruments is accelerating its reach into commercial driverless technology with the acquisition of an automotive virtual test simulator developer.

NI has taken over monoDrive which is also headquartered in Austin, Texas, in a bid to extend its involvement in both future autonomous technologies and also the current and emerging crop of ADAS. It says carmakers and suppliers need systems that streamline the transitions between simulation, lab-based and physical test environments to ultimately create safer vehicles. It warns that siloed processes, using disparate tools, result in time-to-market delays, leading to higher costs that reduce the pace of innovation.

NI hopes to deploy monoDrive’s expertise in signal processing and advanced simulation to hone of ADAS through high fidelity driving environments capable of modeling numerous sensors and thousands of real-time scenarios. Combined with NI’s software-connected systems, the companies hope to streamline the transition between simulation, lab-based and physical testing environments.

Chad Chesney, NI vice-president and general manager of the transportation business unit, said: “The combination of monoDrive’s advanced software and NI’s strong position in ADAS will enable smooth transitions across our customer’s software validation workflows. This in turn delivers greater test efficiency, coverage and more realistic testing scenarios to help automotive manufacturers get safe and reliable autonomous vehicles on the road faster.”

— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in Europe. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_