Daedalean, an autonomous flight startup based in Switzerland, has chosen Phoenix for its first office in the United States, due in part to the copious sunshine.
Daedalean is developing systems and software that are expected to turn aircraft into autonomous vehicles that can fly on their own.
The company, which was founded in 2016, is aiming to launch its first commercial product with Florida-based Avidyne by the end of this year.
The new Phoenix office is under the direction of Yemaya Bordain, a Valley resident who previously served as a global sales director at Intel Corp., specifically around the internet of things and urban air mobility.
“Phoenix is at the forefront of the autonomous mobility revolution,” she said in an interview. “Arizona has a relatively robust aerospace market with over 60 airports and also houses top aerospace companies.”
Bordain noted that Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, L3Harris and other aerospace companies have teams in the Valley, many of whom she worked with when she was at Intel.
She also cited Waymo’s presence in the Valley, currently the only place in the world where the company’s autonomous car travel is open to the public.
'Keeping up with the Jetsons'
Arizona’s signature sunshine and clear skies also make it an ideal place to test AV flying ability.
“I believe in the coming years and decades we are going to be keeping up with the Jetsons,” she said, referencing the cartoon set in the year 2062 that features flying cars. “As these systems scale and as our air space becomes more crowded, we just do not have enough pilots in order to support this market.”
The Phoenix office will, in the coming years, coordinate sales, business development, customer support and flight testing for customers in North and South America.
Daedalean’s AV systems and software are expected to go live with its first commercial client by the end of this year, for use in both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
“Currently, we are working hard with a partner, Avidyne, on receiving certification for our first product," co-founder Anna Chernova said in a statement. “And as far as we know, this will be the world’s first certified system for civil aviation with a non-trivial safety case that has a machine-learned component for AI assistance to a human pilot. It’s more than yet another instrument: it can see and interpret the visual scene beyond human vision and capability.”
Given the novelty of Daedalean’s offering, the company is working with regulators both in the U.S. and in Europe to help study and develop safety standards.
To date, Daedalean has raised more than $72 million in funding to scale the company.
