Zeromatter Comes Out of Stealth With a Physics Based Simulator for Training Autonomous Machines
4 years ago, Zeromatter started with a single bet: building autonomous machines would be faster, safer, and better done first in a virtual world. Today, we’re coming out of stealth to show what that bet has become.
Context
Founded by former Tesla Autopilot simulation leads, the company says it has raised $160M at a $1.1B valuation to let cars, drones and robots be tested in a virtual world first.
Simulation lets developers of self driving cars, drones and robots test rare or dangerous scenarios without real world risk. Zeromatter's founders previously led simulation for Tesla's Autopilot and Optimus programs. The company announced its launch on November 12 after four years in stealth.
Deep dive
Zeromatter posted on November 12 that it started four years ago with a single bet: that building autonomous machines would be faster, safer and better done first in a virtual world. The company said it was coming out of stealth to show what that bet has become.
In a blog post the same day, the company says its cofounders include Axel Gneiting, a former head of Autopilot Simulation at Tesla, and Michael Hosticka, a former head of Autopilot Simulation Content. The post says the founders built a single simulation platform for Autopilot and Optimus while at Tesla.
Zeromatter says its team has grown from 13 to more than 130 people and that it has raised $160M at a $1.1B valuation. It lists seed investors including Two Sigma Ventures, HNVR, Catapult Ventures, Caffeinated Capital and Soma Capital, with angel checks from Guillermo Rauch of Vercel and Boris Sofman of Bedrock Robotics.
The company's website describes the product as a deterministic, physics based reflection of reality that is not a video model or a game engine. It says the platform simulates sensors such as cameras, lidar and radar, and that the team measures real world sensor data in its own labs to keep the gap between simulation and reality small. These claims come from the company.
What to expect next
Watch for named customers in autonomous driving, drones, aviation or robotics, and for published evidence that training in Zeromatter transfers to real world performance. The company will compete with established simulation tools such as Nvidia's, so pricing and availability details will matter. Further funding or partnerships with robot makers would show how fast the physical AI simulation market is growing.