BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Venti Technologies, the leader in safe-speed autonomous vehicles logistics systems, today announced that James Fu and Demian Chong, founding tech team leaders of nuTonomy (now Motional) and globally-recognized experts in autonomy technology, have joined the company, building out the leadership team. Xinxin Du, Venti Founder, is now Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Fu has been appointed Vice President, Engineering, and he and Dr. Chong are co-Chief Technology Officers and co-Founders of Venti Singapore.
Drs. Fu and Chong are pioneers in the field of self-driving technology, having created ground-breaking technology for autonomous taxi fleets being tested today in multiple countries. Their accomplishments also include helping to lead standards and regulatory development for autonomous vehicles at national and international levels, defining the technical platform for the self-driving industry, and building public education and awareness about self-driving vehicles.
“2021 was an important year for Venti, including deploying first-in-the-world fully-functional autonomous container movers, new business success, closing our Seed Round led by LDV Partners and Alpha JWC, and achieving our financial milestones,” said Heidi Wyle, Ph.D., Founder and CEO, Venti Technologies. “We are thrilled to have James and Demian join our company. Their success in deploying self-driving fleets across the globe and deep experience in autonomous vehicle technology will help us quickly grow our autonomous logistics business and company.”
Dr. Fu commented, “Venti’s proprietary AV technology is a differentiated platform and already proven – rare in the autonomous vehicles arena. The company’s autonomous logistics business is an enormous opportunity to decrease operating costs and overcome current supply chain problems. Venti’s technology is safe, reliable, and applicable now.”
“James and Demian have successfully architected and built the technology for the top robotaxi business in the world, and led a team of hundreds of leading engineers,” said Dr. Du, “They will help lead us to scale in autonomous vehicle logistics with logistics hubs customers.”
Dr. Fu is a world leader in autonomous vehicles, having helped lead research advancements in the field at the National University of Singapore/MIT SMART program. He oversaw the world’s first public trial of autonomous vehicles at Singapore’s Chinese Gardens in 2014 with 500 public rides in self-driving golf carts. He built and led the founding technical team at nuTonomy and oversaw nuTonomy’s technology development as it became a top global robotaxi company. He worked with the Land Transport Authority in Singapore to build national standards, developed public education programs, and defined core behaviors of self-driving vehicles, operating principles, and regulation. He led a team of 250 top engineers in this new domain. He holds 10 core autonomy patents.
Dr. Chong is a recognized technology leader in the autonomous vehicles industry. He did ground-breaking work during his Ph.D. at the National University of Singapore/MIT SMART program. He built and implemented a self-driving golf cart within the NUS campus. At the first public demonstration of self-driving vehicles in Singapore in 2014, his team proved the system was safe, reliable, rider-friendly, and adaptable to a wide variety of environmental settings. As a Founding team member of nuTonomy, he led the Mapping and Localization team, and as Principal Scientist, he developed new technologies to help the company achieve global leadership.
Venti was founded by Dr. Wyle, along with Daniela Rus, Ph.D., Director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and a MacArthur Fellow; Saman Amarasinghe, Ph.D., a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT; and Xinxin Du, Ph.D., CSO, Venti Technologies. The Company is the world leader in autonomous container movers and has benchmarked best-in-the-world in perception.
About Venti Technologies
Based in the U.S. and Asia, Venti Technologies is a safe-speed autonomous mobility company developing the future of transportation for moving goods and people. Using rigorous mathematical modeling, deep learning, and theoretically-grounded algorithms, Venti has developed a proprietary collection of autonomy technologies, including a suite of special purpose logistics algorithms. Venti’s proven value proposition of saving costs, increasing vehicle utilization, improving safety, and providing COVID-friendly transportation, is recognized by customers and driving growth. Launched in 2018, Venti brings together an unsurpassed team. The company currently has autonomous systems deployed in Asia for industrial and logistics applications as well as a growing pipeline in the global logistics marketplace. For more information please visit www.ventitechnologies.com.