French tire manufacturer Michelin announced that it has acquired Pittsburgh-based RoadBotics Inc., a startup that specializes in the analysis of road infrastructure images it captures with smartphones.
The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal nor was it immediately clear what would become of RoadBotics' Pittsburgh base on the North Shore. A spokesperson for RoadBotics could not be reached as of publication.
RoadBotics CEO Benjamin Schmidt, Chief Scientist Christoph Mertz, Courtney Ehrlichman and former CEO Mark DeSantis founded the company in 2016 as a spinout from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute. It has raised $11.4 million in venture capital to date and employs an estimated 35 workers, according to the company's LinkedIn profile.
Since its founding, RoadBotics says that it has enabled over 250 governments across 14 countries to better assess and manage their road networks via its AgileMapper and RoadWay tech, the company's project inventory and advanced AI mapping platforms, respectively.
As part of the acquisition, Michelin said it will look to bring RoadBotics' tech to its already-existing Michelin DDi (Driving Data to Intelligence) platform, which is used to analyze data relating to human driving behavior. RoadBotics' computer vision expertise, Michelin said, will lead to easier, faster and more relevant driving decisions.
"With the acquisition of RoadBotics, Michelin strengthens its expertise in artificial intelligence supporting a smarter and safer mobility," Lorraine Frega, an executive vice president at Michelin, said in a press release. "Combining [Michelin's] unique knowledge of tire/vehicle uses, driving behavior analysis and Roadbotics computer vision expertise, Michelin is enriching its services and solutions offer portfolio to road managers helping them to optimize and secure road networks."
The future version of DDi as a result of the combining technology will be made available first in North America before being rolled out in Europe, Michelin said.
