Oculii, radar software maker for autonomous vehicles, raises $55 million

Oculii, a startup that makes software to boost the resolution of radars for use in self-driving cars, said on Thursday it raised $55 million in its latest funding round.

Radars are already widely used in cars to assist with emergency braking, blindspot detection, and parking-assist systems, but the low resolution of the image limits its usage, said Steven Hong, CEO of the Dayton, Ohio startup.

The artificial intelligence software Oculii has developed can boost the radar resolution by 100 times, Hong said. The picture created by the software and shown to Reuters looked similar to images and maps created using lidars, a laser sensor used in self-driving cars.