Engine Ai

Why did you found your start-up, what problem are you addressing and how are you solving it?

We founded Motor Ai to bring self-driving cars from simple highway environments to complex urban environments, where the real value to society lies. However, for a self-driving car to work in a complex environment, it needs to be very safe and have the trust of the public. Therefore, we have developed a decision-making system that is deductive and certifiable as decisions are made transparently. Most current approaches use black boxes that produce inexplicable decisions, which are illegal in the EU.

How did you come up with the idea of founding Motor Ai?

We saw that existing AI approaches were leading to a standstill in the progress of self-driving cars (the date when people expect fully self-driving cars to exist is being pushed further and further into the future), and asked ourselves: "What are the problems with existing technology and how can we fix them?"

What is special about your business model, what do you do differently?

We have always focused on two topics: technological scalability and security in the EU context. This combination makes us unique in the space. Our focus on safety and certification means that we are on our way to being the only certified autonomous driving company in Europe. Our goal is to be the European Waymo.

What were the biggest challenges you had to overcome in the beginning?

Technical thinking around AI can be very rigid and set in stone, so it was a challenge at first to break that mold and build our own innovative technological system from the ground up.

What was the most valuable advice someone gave you during your start-up phase?

The most valuable advice we received was to think about how to make the system certifiable and secure. If we hadn't received this advice, we might have built a solution that ultimately wouldn't be allowed on EU roads.

What has been your biggest success so far?

Becoming a supplier for a major European OEM, which gives us a partner with enormous knowledge and insight into technical and business aspects.

What is the next challenge for you?

Next year we need to accelerate the development and certification processes to build on the momentum of this year.

Why are you at Startbase?

Our goal is to become the European Waymo. We have started the certification processes and need investors and talent to help us maintain and accelerate our growth.

What would you recommend to other founders?

To study the underlying problems and dare to try to solve them, even if common wisdom says they are inevitable/unsolvable.

Where did you meet?

We met through a former business partner of ours who we both respected, which was really good social proof. By bouncing ideas off each other, we realized that we had a similar perspective, e.g. seeing problems and trying to solve them.

What has really gone wrong since you started?

In the very early days, we talked to a lot of consultants who advised us to think either very small or very big in terms of business models, which made it difficult for us to position ourselves in the market. When we learned again to focus more on what the automotive industry, basically our customers, had to say themselves, we discovered the key issues (certification) and the rest fell into place.

Let's say you were mayor of Berlin for a day, what would you change?

Besides offering a digital platform to book appointments with the Berlin Bürgeramt, a risk-taking innovation fund willing to take a chance on the great tech talent in Berlin would be very beneficial to the ecosystem.

(Photo by Ishan @seefromthesky on Unsplash)