Velodyne Lidar has acquired Bluecity, a Montreal-based artificial intelligence (AI) software company whose lidar-based solutions solve safety, traffic and infrastructure issues.
The all-stock acquisition is expected to be immaterial to operating expenses and cash usage. Bluecity’s executive, software development and sales teams will join Velodyne.
Velodyne and Bluecity have been partnering for many years to deliver lidar-based solutions for smart city applications. Velodyne’s Intelligent Infrastructure Solution (IIS) combines the company’s lidar sensors and Bluecity’s AI software.
IIS delivers traffic monitoring and analytics to improve road safety and efficiency, and helps cities plan for smarter, greener transportation systems. The solution is deployed across four continents with 74 installations, including systems rolled out domestically in California, Colorado, Florida, New Jersey, Maryland, Texas, Nevada and Michigan and internationally in Canada, China, UAE, India, Finland, Germany and Australia.
'We are excited to welcome Bluecity as full members of the Velodyne team. They are an exceptionally talented group of innovators with game-changing AI and analytics software that perfectly complements our lidar sensors and Vella software,' said Dr Ted Tewksbury, CEO, Velodyne Lidar.
'The customer response to Velodyne’s lidar-based system solutions has been incredibly positive. Customers are using our lidar and AI-powered analytics to obtain business insights and improve safety, sustainability, efficiency and transportation equity in ways that were never possible with traditional cameras or radar alone. Our acquisition of Bluecity further affirms that a system solutions approach integrating software and hardware is a major competitive advantage for Velodyne across all our end markets.'
