Friday, May 24, 2019

Montana's Blackmore Sensors and Analytics Acquired By Self Driving Car Firm

Bozeman, Montana-based Blackmore Sensors and Analytics, a developer of LIDAR sensors, has been acquired by self driving vehicle developer Aurora. Financial details of the acquisition were not annoucned. Blackmore Sensors and Analytics was backed by Next Frontier Capital, along with BMW i Ventures and Toyota AI Ventures. Aurora said that it acquired Blackmore for its lidar systems (light detection and ranging), which it says are "critical for developing a reliable self-driving system that can navigate our roads more safely than a human driver." Aurora is a heavily backed startup working on self driving cars, and recently raised $530M from such investors as Sequoia Capital, Amazon.com Inc. and T. Rowe Price Group Inc.