2024 Q3 report: building a destination hub for talent as major Terrain Intelligence updates near
23 October 2024
Membership approved of the prestigious Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance? Check. Significant team growth, including attracting a renowned expert in powersports and motorcycles? Check. Major new updates to Terrain Intelligence nearly ready to release? Check. Yes, it really was a busy quarter, writes our CEO Sam Poirier.
Something big is coming in the next few weeks: our 2024 update to Terrain Intelligence is nearly here. We’ve been working around the clock, both in the office and at multiple test sites and facilities, and we’re nearly ready to take the covers off.
In the meantime, we’ve been quietly building a global destination for a unique mix of expertise, combining off-road and unstructured environments with deep understanding of vehicle dynamics, computer vision and AI. Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to this quarter.
Our people
I’m often asked why major automotive companies choose to work with Potential. After all, aren’t they building software in-house? It’s a great question, and the answer is simple: our people.
Our technical team combines expertise across off-road environments, vehicle dynamics, computer vision and AI. This particular blend of experience in unstructured environments often means we’re significantly further down this development track than our target customers are today. We’re already several years into finding answers to questions others are only just beginning to ask.
And we’re not stopping there. We’ve already scaled our team by 35% this summer and we’re continuing to attract talented people. While we’ve primarily focused on expanding our technical capabilities, we have strengthened all areas of our business, with key hires across engineering, AI, commercial and operations departments. Meet some of our new faces in this Q&A.
We also continue to attract luminaries to our advisory board. In the last quarter, we appointed powersports pioneer Stacey Stewart as strategic advisor. Stacey brings with him 35 years in engineering and leadership roles in powersports, motorcycles and off-road vehicles. That includes a 23-year stint at powersports giant Polaris.
Why join Potential? “The team at Potential is bringing the next level of performance and safety to the recreational off-road and motorcycle market, allowing riders to more fully utilize the capability of their vehicles,” Stacey commented. “Potential’s technology will become the standard of performance in the challenging powersports environment.”
Our team now stretches across Canada, the US and Europe, but I’m proud that the beating heart of our business remains right here in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Our technology
We’re gearing up to release major new updates to Terrain Intelligence, our core platform. In the coming weeks, we’ll showcase new features, new vehicle form factors, significant optimization work, accuracy metrics and an improved user interface - the result of a full year’s work.
In the meantime, work continues apace with our pilot project partners, who include leading manufacturers in powersports, motorcycles and automotive vehicles.
One of these is the global powersports manufacturer CFMOTO. Together, we are working through a program of feasibility and pilot projects, which includes building out both Terrain Intelligence features as well as new in-cab products on CFMOTO side-by-sides.
"We recently kicked off a new phase of data collection with the Potential team in the Southwest at temperatures over 50°C,” says Carter Fose, lead EV analyst at CFMOTO USA (see photo above). “This will lay the foundation for our upcoming demo build. I can't wait to experience the evolution of Potential’s system in new environments across the USA!"
While we can’t name our other customers right now, we did recently release some behind-the-scenes footage of our powersports development program, showcasing advancements in tuning for suspension automation:
Terrain Intelligence was born in the world of powersports and has grown up in extreme environments. Lessons learned here makes Terrain Intelligence even more powerful when applied to motorcycles, and solves edge cases in automotive contexts that our customers would be years away from tackling.
Who knew driving fast in gnarly off-road locations would help accelerate our customers’ technical journeys too?
“I can’t wait to experience the evolution of Potential’s system in new environments across the USA!”
Our customers
“Our current pilot projects across powersports, motorcycle and automotive manufacturers are pushing us to new level of innovation,” says Jay Nickerson, our VP Business Development. “As we kick-off the next phase of customer projects with R&D and advanced development contracts in the coming months, we’re getting closer to our first full-scale production deal.”
In the meantime, we are delighted that our membership application has been accepted by the leading global organization representing the vanguard of software-defined automotive technologies.
The Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance (referred to as COVESA) was founded in 2009 and today comprises more than 80 members. These include OEMs (such as Ford, BMW, GM, Honda, Stellantis and Hyundai), tier one suppliers (such as Bosch, Michelin and Garmin) and other reputable supply-chain partners (including Ansys, Arm, Blackberry, Github and Tata Technologies).
The Alliance’s current president is Matt Jones, director of global technology at Ford; its chair is Graham Smethurst, research lead at BMW Group; and serving as vice president is Gerald Spreitz, open source strategy officer at Bosch.
“What a privilege it is to be able to work shoulder-to-shoulder with these esteemed industry figures and organizations,” says Jay. “I’m looking forward to introducing our groundbreaking technologies to our fellow COVESA members through a range of events and conferences. Together, we are shaping the future of software-defined vehicles.”
Where you’ll find us
We’ll be attending major trade shows on both sides of the Atlantic in November to get closer to our partners and customers.
In North America, we’ll be in Las Vegas for the SEMA expo, the premier automotive products event. We’ll be in attendance 4-8 November, and eager to talk through Terrain Intelligence features for the automotive industry.
Over in Europe, we’ll be in Milan, Italy, for EICMA, the world’s longest-running motorcycle show, showing off our latest applications of Terrain Intelligence for two-wheeled vehicles. We’ll be on site 6-10 November.
We’re keen to engage with a variety of delegates, so if you’ll be there - or if you know someone who would benefit from what we do - please get in touch with Jay.
Of course, work continues back at our HQ in Fredericton, and our door is always open to customers or partners who would like to drop in and see what we’re doing up close.
Please follow us on LinkedIn and sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date with all our news and updates. We’ve got exciting updates on the horizon in the next quarter and I wouldn’t want you to miss out.
Sam
