AImotive aims to convert regular cars into driverless ones inexpensively

The AImotive office is in a small converted house at the end of a quiet residential street in sunny Mountain View, spitting distance from Google's headquarters. Outside is a branded Toyota Prius covered in cameras, one of three autonomous cars the Hungarian company is testing in the sleepy neighbourhood. While other autonomous car projects, including those from Waymo and Uber, rely on an expensive (but very useful) radar-like system called Lidar for depth perception and obstacle detection (as well as cameras for seeing the colour of traffic lights and signs), AImotive is trying to do the same using regular cameras combined with artificial intelligence. This means the company can convert a regular car into a driverless one for a fraction of the price – around $6,000 – as opposed to $70,000-$100,000. "The whole traffic system is based on the visual system," explained founder and CEO Laszlo Kishonti. "Drivers don't have bat ears and sonars, you just look around and drive."