Tekcapital PLC’s (LON:TEK) portfolio firm, Guident Ltd, has acquired a new IP from Florida International University to remotely control autonomous cars and drones.
The IP commercialisation firm said the exclusively licensed patent from the university described methods for coordinating autonomous cars and drones with a remote control centre to allow the vehicles to navigate difficult situations such as heavy weather, crowded and dangerous traffic scenarios, accident prevention and remediation, and off-grid and last mile package delivery.
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Dr Clifford Gross, chairman of Tekcapital, said the use of a backup control centre would “enhance consumer confidence” in self-driving vehicles as unpredictable situations could be handled in real-time by remote operators.
“This would mind the gap in the foreseeable future between the vision of level 5 autonomy and the stubborn current reality of imperfect artificial intelligence", he added.
In early trading on Thursday, Tekcapital’s shares were up 2.1% at 11.7p.