Driving the Future – A Strategic Collaboration between LeddarTech and Texas Instruments
LeddarTech and Texas Instruments join forces to revolutionize automotive technology integrating LeddarVision’s cutting-edge AI fusion software with TI’s advanced processors, delivering scalable, high-performance ADAS and autonomous driving solutions. Tune in to this episode of the LeddarTech Labs and hear directly from the President and CEO of LeddarTech, Frantz Saintellemy, on the agreement between the two companies.
Podcast Transcript
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the LeddarTech Lab podcast, where we explore groundbreaking advancements in automotive technology that are reshaping our roads, cities, and lifestyles. I’m your host, Michelle Dawn Mooney, and today we have a special Driving the Future episode that is sure to interest investors, tech enthusiasts, and the automotive community alike. We’re joined by Frantz Saintellemy, the President and CEO of LeddarTech, to discuss an exciting new collaboration between LeddarTech and Texas Instruments. Together, these two industry leaders are working to deliver scalable advanced driving assistance systems, ADAS, and autonomous driving solutions. Frantz, it is wonderful to have you with us. Great to see you again. Thanks for being here.
Frantz: Great to see you, and thank you for having me.
Michelle: Absolutely. And as I said, some exciting things coming our way. Frantz, before we dive into the details, can you start by giving us an overview of what this strategic collaboration with Texas Instruments means for LeddarTech, and why it’s so significant?
Frantz: You know, from where we are, this collaboration, from our view, is a major milestone for LeddarTech as we partner with a company that is a leader in their space, one of the largest and biggest, most influential names in the semiconductor industry, Texas Instruments. You know, our goal is to develop and bring a scalable solution for advanced driver assistance and autonomous driving to market. This partnership not only accelerates our products, but as well as reinforces the value of the LeddarVision, which is our AI-based fusion and perception software stack, which is now pre-integrated and validated on TI’s TDA4 system on chips. And for us, we think that creates a comprehensive solution which brings superior performance, flexibility, and cost efficiency to the entire automotive ecosystem. So with this agreement, our software will be commercialized by TI’s global automotive salesforce to all their OEMs and Tier 1s across the globe. So we think this is a major, major milestone.
Michelle: So besides the strategic alignment, TI has made a significant financial commitment, an advanced royalty payment of nearly $10 million. Can you discuss what this investment means and how it is expected to impact your commercialization plans as you kind of alluded to there?
Frantz: I mean, just for sake of clarification, this $10 million is non-dilutive money. This is basically advanced payments on the license. So it’s a commitment that underscores their confidence in our technology, which is something we’re incredibly proud of. This $10 million in advanced royalty payment is a strong signal to the market that TI and LeddarTech are fully committed to making a meaningful long-term impact in the ADAS and AD space together. We believe this collaboration creates a best-in-class software and SoC bundle. And we think that we have not only a solution that we believe is an industry marker, but we’ve also validated this with customers. We received positive reactions from various customers on the current offering, as well as on our roadmap together. So we think that this is going to lead to a lot of market traction.
Michelle: So when it comes to technology, because of course that is the key piece here that we’re talking about, the LeddarVision platform has a lot of unique capabilities. So can you explain how it is being integrated with TI’s products? And then what kind of advantages this integration brings to automotive manufacturers?
Frantz: Right. The LeddarVision software is an AI-based data fusion that delivers exceptional accuracy and performance, even with fewer number of sensors, as well as a lower computing SoC architecture. This reduces overall system cost, as well as development complexity. By integrating our software with TI’s SoC platform, we’re creating a bundled solution that really simplifies the development process for OEMs and Tier 1s, because from the get-go, they have a software that is fully available, ported to the processor, that allows them to immediately start developing ADAS systems, or even AD solutions, which typically requires significant porting and integration efforts, which increases complexity, increases development cost, increases risks, as well as increases the risk of failure when it comes to validation. So this pre-ported, fully validated solution addresses a plethora of challenges, but most important, it delivers better performance over existing solutions today.
Michelle: You have been working closely with Texas Instruments on this integration and have presented the solution to various OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. What kind of feedback have you received from the industry so far?
Frantz: As I mentioned earlier, we’ve had various types of feedbacks, but let me give you some statistics. Since September, we have done over 50 in-vehicle, on-the-road demonstrations. We’ve talked to over 100 different types of people across the industry, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers have shown significant interest in our combined solution. They appreciate the advanced features and performance we deliver, especially with the LeddarVision already running real-time on TI’s TDA4 processors. Together, we have been able to not only present a compelling solution, but also demonstrate the potential for faster time-to-market, lower-cost solutions, as well as demonstrating higher performance than what is currently available to customers. It’s a transformative solution that really resonates well with automotive manufacturers looking for reliable and future-proof ADAS and AD technology. May I also add, Michel, that this solution not only resonates with customers, but it addresses significant pain points, such as it’s a single software stack that is ported across the platform of processors from TI, which means that they can start with a lower-performing, low-cost solution. If they need to move up and add more features and go to a different tier, they can actually cut across the different processor families within TI, and the software is fully compatible. And so this is a breakthrough, and it has never been done until today.
Michelle: And you addressed some pain points. You touched on that this is really helping get through or provide solutions for those pain points. But let’s talk about some of the specific benefits that investors and the automotive industry can now expect from this collaboration. What makes this solution so unique?
Frantz: This collaboration brings a range of unique benefits. First, it’s an open bundle of hardware and software solution. So again, we’re coming from an industry that basically has a black box approach. We are offering a white or gray box solutions, meaning that OEMs and Tier 1 customers can integrate their own application software, giving them a level of flexibility that doesn’t exist today. Our combined solution delivers best-in class performance while reducing costs without compromising safety and quality.
Second, the software architecture allows for flexibility and scalability. So it’s adaptable to various levels of ADAS and autonomous driving applications, from simple driver assistance to more advanced driving and autonomy functionality, such as parking functions, automated parking, highway pilots, or city pilots. We can also offer advanced virtualization tools, extensive datasets, and simulation capabilities which are vital for efficient development and high-performance outcomes.
Lastly, it’s a comprehensive package with robust customer support at every phase, from innovation and pre-development all the way to deployment and post deployment support.
Michelle: You mentioned adaptability, and it sounds like this platform solution has a lot of flexibility. So can you discuss how it may support future applications beyond ADAS, possibly in areas like driver monitoring or even infotainment?
Frantz: Yes, exactly. Our solution is optimized to the point where we’re freeing up compute resources on the ISOC to support additional application functions. This opens the door for an OEM or Tier 1 to integrate other functionalities, such as driver monitoring systems, in-vehicle infotainment, all within a single platform. As we continue to refine and improve our technology offering with TI, we are also looking at how it could further expand to support even more automotive applications, making it truly holistic and future-ready.
Michelle: What would you say to the investor community who may be watching this collaboration very closely and considering its impact on LeddarTech’s growth trajectory?
Frantz: To our investors, I would say that this partnership is a strategic milestone. It’s a strong market and commercial validation that our technology is best in class, and it has the potential to be the industry-leading solution across the globe. Our vision is that the LeddarVision will be the most deployed software stack for ADAS and autonomous driving in the future. So having Texas Instruments, one of the largest semiconductor suppliers and one of the most successful companies in the world, on board as a strategic partner and go-to market collaborator is a significant achievement and an endorsement that accelerates our market penetration and revenue generation. This collaboration fast-tracks our platform’s adoption and deployment in various different applications across the globe. We are very, very well positioned to make an impactful contribution. And as you know, with anything, as you start deploying to more and more customers, we are confident that this will generate value not just in the near term, but establish the foundation for LeddarTech to be one of the most valuable software companies in the world.
Michelle: I’m sure many of our listeners are eager to know, here’s the big burning question, when can we expect to see this product on the market? What is the timeline for availability?
Frantz: I am excited to say that with our collaboration with TI, we’re not talking about something that we’re going to do in the future. We have been working with TI for close to two years in order to get ourselves to the moment where we can announce our collaboration to the world, but also where we can demonstrate that the solution is working real-time in a vehicle. So we’ve already done that since September. That was the first implementation. We have been working to optimize our solution even further and demonstrate an even better solution. So at CES this year, we will actually demonstrate what we call the LeddarVision Surround, which is integrated into Texas Instruments’ TDA4H, which is a 32-TOPS processor that allows us to showcase a premium surround solution for level 2-plus applications. And we’ll be able to demonstrate that at our booth, but also on the TI booth. And then shortly after that, in March, all our customers will be able to experience in a vehicle.
Michelle: A big 2025 ahead. Thank you so much, Frantz, for sharing this exciting development with us. It is clear that LeddarTech’s vision for a scalable, accessible, and high-performance ADAS and autonomous driving platform is not only a reality now, but one that is set to reshape the industry alongside Texas Instruments. For those tuning in, remember that LeddarTech is working hard to bring this future to life, backed by strong technology, partnerships, and of course, a commitment to innovation. Frantz, thank you so much for being here. Appreciate your time and congratulations.
Frantz: Thank you, Michelle. It’s been a pleasure to be here. We are definitely looking forward to an incredible journey ahead with Texas Instruments and for the impact we can have together. We believe that safety is fundamental and regulators across the globe are working really hard to make safety a base requirement for all vehicles. And together, LeddarTech and Texas Instruments, for the first time, can really democratize access to safety to everyone on any budget.
Michelle: Big milestone and congratulations once again. With that, I want to thank all of you for listening to this podcast of LeddarTech Labs. Stay tuned for more updates on how industry leaders like LeddarTech are driving change and innovation in the automotive world. I’m your host, Michelle Donwood, and we hope to connect with you on another podcast soon. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time.
