Borgward launches US HQ in Silicon Valley

Borgward Group, a global automotive startup with more than 100,000 cars off the production line since the brand was reborn in 2015 in China, has launched its new US headquarters and R&D center in Sunnyvale, California. Borgward is also unveiling its new AI safety and reliability technology for autonomous vehicles at the AI Conference presented by O’Reilly and Intel AI in San Francisco.

Borgward says that its US R&D center is a key milestone in its global expansion strategy, which includes selling both traditional and electric vehicles (EVs) across nearly 20 countries in Europe, China, South East Asia, Africa and South America. Borgward launched its most recent BXi7 fully-electric SUV and its GT BX6 SUV in May 2018, and has two new models set to launch in 2019. The company plans to enter the US market in the next three years.

Borgward says that it is taking a different approach to safety than other EV/AD automakers whose strategies rely mainly on sensors and field testing. Borgward’s platform will serve as an addition in leveraging AI technology that predicts risky behaviors and integrates learnings back into product development, in order to avoid collisions.

The platform is currently in prototype, with three unique risk features—automatic honking, advanced risky behavior identification and labeling, and marking of high-risk physical areas—to be incorporated into Borgward production cars within three years. Borgward will also make its platform available to other OEMs, in a long-term effort to create a global industry standard in safety testing for all autonomous cars.