Founded this year, Tel Aviv-based Ottopia is pitching itself as a teleoperation platform for autonomous vehicles. The startup was cofounded by CEO Amit Rosenzweig, formerly head of product management at Microsoft’s Advanced Threat Analytics, and CTO Leon Altarac, who previously set up the robotics and AV branch of the Israeli army.

“Our platform addresses all the core challenges in teleoperation, like network connectivity, safety, and cybersecurity,” Rosenzweig told VentureBeat. “And the feedback so far from key players is very encouraging.”

While part of its offering does indeed enable the manual control of vehicles by a remote human operator, the company’s pitch is more than that — it promises a hybrid system that relies on a human operator working in tandem with the car’s AI smarts during a remote intervention.
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