Ansys and Edge Case Research Transform Autonomous Vehicle Artificial Intelligence

Collaboration significantly advances autonomous vehicles safety, solves complex AI reliability challenges

PITTSBURGH, September 3, 2019 – Ansys (NASDAQ: ANSS) is collaborating with Edge Case Research to engineer the next generation of autonomous vehicles (AV) with unmatched state-of-the-art hazard detection capabilities. Through a new OEM agreement, Edge Case Research integrates its powerful AV artificial intelligence (AI) perception stress testing and risk analysis system, Hologram, within Ansys’ comprehensive AV simulation solution — delivering a solution to maximize the safety of AVs.

Today’s AVs rely on AI perception algorithms that are trained to make safety-critical driving decisions. Though highly advanced, an AV may fail to detect hazardous driving scenarios known as “edge cases” — because its algorithmic training has not prepared it for the many unusual road situations it will encounter in the real world. To ensure the highest safety of an AV — and make fully autonomous vehicles a reality, developers need tools to automatically identify these challenging edge cases in a way that is far more scalable than manual data labeling.

Through this collaboration, Edge Case Research, a global leader in autonomy safety assessment software, will integrate Hologram with Ansys’ highly sophisticated AV open simulation solution. This unrivalled end-to-end capability analyzes AV algorithms to detect edge cases to advance the development of and help to validate perception algorithms in the most advanced AV systems. Hologram can be scaled to other industries such as aerospace and defense, mining, agriculture, industrial robotics, and any other domain that relies on AI-based vision and perception software.

“We’re excited to join the Ansys AV ecosystem. We chose to partner with Ansys because of their deep expertise in safety, which is critical to understanding how products like Hologram, VRXPERIENCE and SCADE can be used together in support of safety cases for autonomous products,” said Mike Wagner, CEO at Edge Case Research. “Ansys and Edge Case Research will deliver an unprecedented comprehensive capability for safeguarding the next generation of autonomous driving systems.”

“Edge Case delivers a powerful data testing and analytics platform that unlocks the value of petabytes of AV’s recorded road data to find edge cases, significantly accelerating the development of safer, AI-driven perception software. Underlying capabilities have been incorporated into our recently announced collaboration with BMW,” said Eric Bantegnie, vice president and general manager at Ansys. “Together we will usher in a new era of AI and shape the future of safe autonomous driving.”

About ANSYS, Inc.

If you’ve ever seen a rocket launch, flown on an airplane, driven a car, used a computer, touched a mobile device, crossed a bridge or put on wearable technology, chances are you’ve used a product where Ansys software played a critical role in its creation. Ansys is the global leader in engineering simulation. Through our strategy of Pervasive Engineering Simulation, we help the world’s most innovative companies deliver radically better products to their customers. By offering the best and broadest portfolio of engineering simulation software, we help them solve the most complex design challenges and create products limited only by imagination. Founded in 1970, Ansys is headquartered south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., Visit www.ansys.com for more information.

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