DriveU, creator of the award-winning Teleoperation Connectivity Platform, announces support of AV1 video encoding, which offers 30% higher compression efficiency. DriveU.auto is the first to provide operators of driverless fleets with unprecedented video quality without compromising on latency.
RAANANA, Israel – March 21, 2023 – DriveU.auto, developer of a software-based connectivity platform for teleoperation of robots and autonomous vehicles, announced an industry first with support for the cutting-edge AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) video codec by its Teleoperation Connectivity Platform.
With the improved compression efficiency enabled by AV1 video encoding running on the NVIDIA® Jetson Orin™ system-on-module, DriveU’s platform offers high visual quality, smoother video experiences, low data consumption and low latency—ideal for teleoperation.
Remote human supervision and when needed, intervention—or teleoperation—is a critical building block in the development, testing, and large-scale deployment of robots and autonomous vehicles. Remote operation is done over cellular networks, the performance constraints of which present serious limitations on the required quality, continuity and low latency needed for the transmission of video between the autonomous vehicle and its remote operator. DriveU.auto’s technology implements patented cellular bonding and dynamic video encoding, enabling the required performance levels needed for autonomous vehicle and robot teleoperation.
AV1 is an open, royalty-free video coding format initially designed for video transmissions over the internet. It created a landmark change in the video streaming industry by providing higher quality and more consistent performance than rival codecs such as VP9 and H.265 standards. The ultra-high-performance video codec claims at least 30% more compression efficiency than H.265/HEVC and 50% more compression efficiency than H.264.
AV1 encoding is considered 4-10x more complex to perform than H.265 which, until recently, implied an equivalent rise in encoding time, making it impractical in teleoperation scenarios which require low latency. DriveU.auto’s implementation of the A1 codec on NVIDIA Jetson Orin now delivers the improved video performance without introducing additional latency. The result is a solution optimized for robot and autonomous vehicle teleoperation: it combines high-quality video, low-data consumption, and low latency, with no need to compromise.
By implementing the most advanced technologies—AV1 and NVIDIA Jetson Orin —DriveU.auto introduces a performance breakthrough, transmitting even higher quality video without compromising on latency or cost. The latest version of the Connectivity Platform supporting AV1 has already been adopted by innovative, LA-based delivery robot operator Coco Delivery and deployed in their fleet of delivery robots.
“DriveU’s support of AV1 will provide a major boost to our video quality,” said Sahil Sharma, COO of Coco Delivery. “This improvement will translate to a faster and better delivery service for our customers.”
“DriveU is relentlessly improving our platform’s performance, for the benefit of our customers,” said Alon Podhurst, CEO of DriveU.auto. “Our laser focus on providing the best connectivity platform for our growing customer base means that we continuously push ourselves to implement cutting-edge technologies and standards—as in the case of AV1.”
About DriveU.auto
DriveU.auto, an Israel-based startup, developed and is deploying a software-based connectivity platform for teleoperation of robots and autonomous vehicles.
The DriveU.auto solution enables both remote driving (direct drive) or high-level commands (remote assistance), at very low latency and high reliability based on proprietary cellular bonding and dynamic video encoding technologies. DriveU.auto customers and partners—autonomous vehicles’ developers (cars, trucks and shuttles), makers of delivery robots, OEMs, tier 1s, developers of autonomous delivery robots—have been using the DriveU platform on roads in the EU, US, China, Japan and Israel.
About Coco
At Coco, we’re dedicated to perfecting the last-mile delivery experience by using remotely operated vehicles. We strongly believe the delivery service industry in its current state is massively under-serving merchants, and we are committed to creating a frictionless, reliable, consistent, and sustainable delivery experience for merchants and their customers in cities everywhere.