Lyft buys British AR company to boost self-driving strategy

Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-24 06:28:57|Editor: yan
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SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. ride-hailing company Lyft Inc. has acquired a London-based augmented reality (AR) startup Blue Vision Labs to enhance its ambitious self-driving strategy, Blue Vision co-founder and CEO Peter Ondruska said Tuesday.

Blue Vision's all tech and team members will join Lyft's Level 5 autonomous car division to build technology for Lyft's self-driving efforts, Ondruska said in a statement.

"Blue Vision Labs is joining forces with Lyft in their mission to revolutionize transportation, via a full technology, team, and product acquisition of Blue Vision Labs," he said.

The London-based AR company uses smart phone cameras to capture street-level images and build collaborative, interactive AR layers.

Ondruska said his company's AR cloud technology can "connect ridesharing passengers with their drivers by overlaying the car's position onto the rider's smartphone screen in augmented reality."

He noted that the technology could be further advanced at a much greater scale after Blue Vision joins Lyft.

Media reports said San Francisco-based Lyft bought the British startup for about 72 million U.S. dollars, with an addition 30 million dollars to be paid after certain milestones are hit in the future. There was no word of confirmation from Lyft.

Ondruska disclosed that its previous investors included Google Ventures, Accel, Horizons Ventures and other angel investors.

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