Laplace Intelligence, an Ann Arbor-based startup, is using AI to red-team robots and self-driving cars before they are deployed in the real world, aiming to ensure their safety and reliability.

The company is one of 20 startups competing in Startup Battlefield 200, the startup pitch competition taking place at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this week, October 13-15. It will present on the Disrupt Stage Tuesday afternoon, October 13.

Laplace's high-fidelity simulation, built on Nvidia's Cosmos, is grounded in the real world, allowing the company to reconstruct environments from an Arizona highway to a Paris pedestrian crossing.

Simulations are generated by blending real-world map data to re-create environments that are true to scale. Developers can use language prompts to change the setting in real time, such as adding afternoon traffic.

"We are essentially using simulation to predict the real world’s future," said Howie Sun, CEO and co-founder of Laplace Intelligence. The simulation environment is interactive, with all actors reacting to each other, creating a world model with interactive participants.

Laplace's AI agents are designed to automatically create corner cases, challenging autonomous vehicles and other physical AI agents.

"They can design from the news, from police reports on collisions — all kinds of information to actively challenge the autonomous vehicles and other physical AI agents," Sun said.

The startup is also working with Nvidia and T-Mobile on a free smart city pilot for San Jose, California.

Laplace is currently in the early stages of working with partners building humanoid robotics for warehouses. Most of the company’s customer contracts are project-based, and it is working toward turning that into recurring revenue. The startup’s near-term goal is to raise funds and scale to compete with its rivals, including Applied Intuition.

Laplace did not say how it will handle the challenge of generalized robotics, where there is less data on edge cases. The company is also focusing on ensuring that its AI testing methodology becomes the standard for testing physical AI. "That will be the biggest moat," Sun said.

Source: techcrunch