COMPREDICT & Palantir Partner to Develop Virtual Sensors for Future Vehicles - COMPREDICT CEO Dr. Stéphane Foulard

COMPREDICT is a German startup offering data-driven virtual sensors built to replace hardware sensors across automotive applications. It has has just announced a partnership with Palantir Technologies Inc. COMPREDICT will use Palantir’s Foundry software to provide virtual sensors and other services to partners around the world.

The goal is to fulfil the need for better cloud-based solutions for connected vehicles. Palantir is a leading builder of operating systems for enterprises.

In a press statement, Dr. Stéphane Foulard, CEO and Co-Founder of COMPREDICT, says: “The Palantir and COMPREDICT partnership is of great value for our automotive partners and offers our catalogue of virtual sensors to help OEMs reduce their hardware bill and enable more capabilities to monetize on data right from the start by delivering our technology on Palantir’s platform. I am pleased to have Palantir partnering with us for addressing not only automotive but also other large data-driven industries such as rail, aerospace, or heavy industries.” 

“The range of use cases for Foundry across COMPREDICT emphasises the breadth of practical applications for our software in the automotive sector,” adds Palantir’s Global Head of Automotive and Mobility, Liam Mawe. “We are proud to partner with COMPREDICT in its mission to lead the virtual sensor business segment, helping OEMs cut costs while making smarter, safer, and ultimately more sustainable decisions with their products.” 

Together with Rafael Fietzek, Foulet founded COMPREDICT after the completion of their PhD studies at TU Darmstadt. During research work, they recognised the potential of in-vehicle data, and what the intelligent use of it can generate in terms of insights.

The Darmstadt-based company now has more than thirty projects with OEMs and Tier 1 companies, and about ten patents and patent applications.

Closing The Loop

Virtual Sensors can be deployed in the cloud, embedded in the vehicles, or as a combination of both. These virtual sensors form the foundations of the software-based vehicles of the future. They help to minimise CO2 in various application areas, add new measurement capabilities to existing and new vehicles, provide health and usage monitoring, and even pave the way for predictive maintenance management.

Talking to Auto Futures, Foulard explains how they work.

"Combining signal processing, semi-physical approach, sensor fusion and machine learning algorithms, Virtual Sensors only use standardly available signals and data in series-production vehicles and accurately reproduce physical quantities out of them. They can be used to enhance the capabilities of existing vehicle software or to replace hardware sensors in any vehicle’s electrical and electronic (E/E) architecture, from current legacy architectures up to Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) architecture."

COMPREDICT is backed by some major players in the mobility sector. In June, 2022, the Darmstadt-based company announced it had raised a Series A Round of €5.5 million led by Vektor Partners, a mobility-focused VC firm, and BlackBerry Limited.

"We contribute to reducing the amount of electronics in vehicles and consider vehicle health & usage monitoring as an essential part of a sustainable vehicle lifecycle. Our Virtual Sensors close the loop between the development, usage & service of vehicles, enable component right sizing and weight reduction, efficient predictive maintenance, and help manufacturers reduce their environmental footprint," explains Foulard.

Shift4Good is a venture capital fund manager that invests in smart mobility and circular economy startuos. It's also an investor in  COMPREDICT.

According to Shift4Good: “We are convinced that the development of virtual sensors will contribute to the development of vehicles that require less hardware sensors, vehicles for which critical components can be better right-sized and predictive maintenance ultimately help iimprove the lifetime of the asset. Those improvements all yield a significant positive impact on the environment. COMPREDICT differentiating collaborative approach with carmarkers’ and tier-1 suppliers’ engineering teams has enabled the team to develop superior algorithms, by combining deep automotive mechatronics and mechanics expertise with strong data science mastery.”

Finally, we asked Foulard what urban mobility will look like by the end of the decade.

"The current trend from individual to shared mobility, and the paradigm shift from a one-time product lifecycle towards re-use and re-purpose of multiple components in a circular economy, both induce major changes in vehicle product specifications. Lifespan mileage of vehicles is getting longer, increasing the need for reliability and durability, while the mitigation of climate change requests a reduction of energy consumption and overall environmental impact of mobility," he predicts.

"The urban mobility in 2030 will be multi-modal, electric, shared and connected," concludes Foulard.