WayRay Announces Strategic Partnership with Banma Technologies with Investment Support from Alibaba Group

As you already know from our blog, we are creating our own technology for producing holographic displays for use in the first navigation system operating in augmented reality.

For all this time we have invested in the development of about $ 10 million in venture capital investments and our own funds.
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Today we announce the start of cooperation with Banma Technologies and the attraction of a new investment round of $ 18 million, including from the Alibaba Group.

We think it makes no sense to tell the audience to Geektimes about who the guys from Alibaba Group are, but Banma Technologies is most likely not so well known in Russia.

Banma Technologies is an independent startup invested by the Internet Car Fund, created by the Alibaba Group together with SAIC Motor. The startup aims to use the latest digital and computer technologies and mobile services in the automotive industry to bring it to a new level.

To date, there are already a number of cars released to the market thanks to the Bamna - Roewe RX5, Roewe eRX5, Roewe i6 and MG ZS.


Roewe rx5

Before the investment round, we agreed to implement a joint pilot project with Banma, within the framework of which an AR-infotainment system will be created and put into mass production on one of the cars already in 2018.

It will be the first car in the world, mass-produced and having on board a holographic AR-display. Now the project is at the stage of creating a navigation system in augmented reality - it will prompt the driver for the route, as well as notify about traffic situations and display data from the dashboard.





We quote our CEO, Vitaly Ponomarev:

We have developed the world's only technology that allows you to create augmented reality in the car. This makes our product stand out against the background of traditional HUD and attracts the largest automakers. In 2017, we plan to launch holographic AR Navion navigator into mass production and sign contracts with the world's largest automakers on the implementation of our infotainment system.

And here is how Banma CEO Alex Shi commented on the deal.

Holographic displays with augmented reality technology are the future of car navigation systems. AR-navigation does not distract the driver and provides greater safety when driving, since notifications and route information are displayed right on the road. In addition, with the growing share of unmanned vehicles and advanced automatic control systems on the market, AR-systems will open up new opportunities for improving information and interaction with the car.

We believe that there is great potential in developing advanced augmented reality technology. Prospects for its application in various industries are not limited. An example of this is the WayRay AR-navigation system developed for the automotive industry.

- Ethan Xie Senior Finance Director at Alibaba Group.

The interest of companies of this level to augmented reality in cars may indicate that AR navigators are no longer the fate of science fiction fans, but the present future of transport.

And the future is pretty close.

If you also care about the subject of future transport, augmented reality and holography - do not forget to subscribe to our blog.

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By the way, we have a lot of great jobs !