Woven Planet Holdings Takes Over CARMERA

CARMERA has been acquired by Woven Planet Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, in a proposed transaction revealed in July 2021.

FREMONT, CA: CARMERA, a U.S.-based spatial AI business that focuses on building scalable, next-generation mapping solutions for automated mobility, has been acquired by Woven Planet Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, in a proposed transaction revealed in July 2021. This is Woven Planet's second takeover, following its acquisition of Level 5, Lyft Inc.'s automated driving subsidiary. Woven Planet focuses on mobility innovations and investments in automated driving, robots, smart cities, and much more.

The CARMERA team has been a long-time, trustworthy partner of Woven Planet, and with the transaction completed, Woven Planet will take instant control of their New York and Seattle offices and activities. They will get together with Woven Planet's Automated Mapping Platform ("AMP") group, assisting in developing AMP to make it the most internationally extensive road and lane network HD map platform, allowing automated vehicles to have high-precision localization support. CARMERA's expertise in map updates, change management, and camera-dependent crowdsourcing from fleets will complement and extend Woven Planet's existing HD mapping platform. The acquisition of CARMERA, along with Level 5 and Toyota Research Institute ("TRI"), will bring Woven Planet another step closer to realizing its goal of "Mobility to Love, Safety to Live."

The agreement was approved after a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Comment from James Kuffner, CEO, Woven Planet, "This acquisition will accelerate our AMP initiative that will advance our mission to develop the safest mobility in the world at scale. Bringing CARMERA's world-class engineers and experts into the fold--as well as additional technology resources and footprints in New York and Seattle--the Woven Planet team, alongside the team of TRI and Level 5, will help us reach our goal of providing the best globally comprehensive road and lane network HD map platform. We will transform the world we live in through mobility technologies that can bring about a happier, safer future for us all."