Ann Arbor defense contractor develops autonomous-vehicle spinoff at SPARK Ypsi
Soar Technologies adapted some of its military artificial intelligence research and development to a new spinoff, Soar Automotive.
Having adapted its military artificial intelligence work to Ann Arbor’s burgeoning autonomous-vehicle industry, Soar Automotive recently “graduated” from the Ann Arbor SPARK East business incubator in downtown Ypsilanti.
Soar Automotive is a less traditional tenant for a business accelerator. The company is a spin-off of Ann Arbor’s Soar Technologies and used the business accelerator as a temporary office space while it searched for a permanent home.
Soar Technologies provides contract research and development work for the U.S. Department of Defense, applying artificial intelligence techniques to military problems. Spin-off Soar Automotive will adapt some of those same technologies to the field of self-driving vehicles, says Soar Automotive president Andy Dallas.
“We focus on developing technologies that emulate human behavior,” Dallas says. “Like human drivers, the technology can deal with imperfect data, project into the future what may be happening, and adjust its driving based on that. It deals with complicated situations more robustly than other approaches you hear about.”
Dallas says an ex-employee of Soar Technologies had used SPARK’s business incubator in Ypsi and recommended it when Soar Automotive was conceived of as a spin-off business.
“We needed a place to stay while we were looking for real estate, and that ex-employee spoke well of the Ypsi facility, and we liked what we saw,” Dallas says.
The spin-off used the incubator for office space from February through early May, when the company moved out of the incubator and into its current space at 1665 Highland Dr. on the south side of Ann Arbor.
Dallas says Soar Automotive currently has six employees and may double its staff in the next six months. Staying in the Ann Arbor region made sense for a number of reasons. Dallas says many of Soar’s existing employees live in Ann Arbor, and Ann Arbor is an attractive community to live in for new recruits as the company prepares to hire more employees.
Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.
Photo courtesy of Soar Automotive.
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