Liberty Mutual Insurance has announced an investment and new strategic partnership with Edge Case Research, a firm that helps companies go to market with autonomous vehicle technologies and services.
Liberty Mutual’s venture capital arm, Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, participated in the recent seed financing of the firm, which was established by autonomy and software safety experts from Carnegie Mellon University. The seed round was led by AV pioneer, and Aurora Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chris Urmson, and also simulation software provider ANSYS.
Brendan Smyth, Senior Vice President (SVP), Global Risks Solutions, Liberty Mutual, commented: “Technology is creating vast new business opportunities centered on autonomy – from autonomous vehicles to manufacturing. However, it also brings significant new risks that must be carefully managed and mitigated if these companies are to thrive and grow.
“Our partnership with Edge Case Research will let us better meet the complex risk management needs of such companies by understanding how to successfully identify, mitigate and manage their risks.”
Liberty states that the partnership with Edge Case Research is a venture which will deliver mutual benefits for both firms and their clients. Currently, the pair are collaborating on a pilot of Edge Case Research’s Hologram solution, which tests the software and hardware used by autonomous vehicles.
It’s expected that this collaboration will ultimately help Liberty Mutual develop new and improved risk management for companies that offer autonomous vehicle solutions, while at the same time support better risk understanding and pricing.
Both Liberty and Edge Case Research will also form part of the Underwriters Laboratories Standards Technical Panel, developing the industry standard for evaluating the safety of autonomous products.
