Automotive technology company Valeo and Natix Network, a Solana-based decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) provider, have partnered to build an open-source, multi-camera model powered by artificial intelligence (AI) aimed at improving autonomous driving systems.
The two companies said Thursday they are working to build what they call a Worldwide Enterprise Model (WFM), which they say will be able to learn and predict real-world movement, while adapting to traffic situations.
The multi-camera model aims to push the boundaries of AI models from text-based understanding to real-world scenarios in physical environments, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph. It also aims to promote research in the field of autonomous driving.
Valeo and Natix have pledged to publicly release their models, datasets, and training tools to enable developers to fine-tune these capabilities. A Natix spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the first version of the WFM model is expected to be ready within the next two months.
WFM to accelerate the emergence of autonomous vehicles
Self-driving startup Wayve is already using WFM devices in its vehicles, including a test in which the car navigated parts of Las Vegas without prior training in the city, according to materials shared by the company’s CEO, Alex Kendall, on Friday.
WFM is part of the broader DePIN sector, which integrates blockchain technology with community-owned physical infrastructure to create decentralized networks where participants can contribute resources, such as computing power, in exchange for cryptocurrency.
The ultimate goal of the WFM self-driving camera prototype is to “enhance mobility intelligence” with the safety, responsibility and advent of autonomous vehicles, said Mark Frico, CEO of Valeo’s Brain division.
Alireza Quds, co-founder and CEO of Natix, sees WFMs as a generational opportunity similar to the rise of large language models (LLMs) from 2017 to 2020.
“The teams that build the world’s first scalable models will determine the foundation of the next AI wave: physical AI.”
Unlike current AI models that rely solely on perception, the global multi-camera model seeks to build predictive capabilities to accelerate the mainstream deployment of autonomous vehicles.
Decentralizing and open-sourcing WFM could allow physical AI systems to be trained and tested across a wider range of real-world conditions before deployment, Natix said. “Transparent frameworks allow the ecosystem to move faster,” a company spokesperson said, adding that extensive testing is critical to safety.
Competitive landscape and Valeo-Natix bet size
One of Valeo and Natix’s main competitors is Alpamayo, a family of open-source vision, language and motion models launched by chipmaker giant Nvidia. The solution uses camera and sensor data to make decisions through logic-based autonomy.
Founded in 2020, Natix operates a decentralized multi-camera data network which, according to industry research firm Messari, includes hundreds of thousands of contributors and hundreds of millions of kilometers of recorded driving data.
