SA国际传媒

, an open-source self-driving startup based in Japan, 鈥渙ver $100 million鈥� in a massive Series A funding round led by .

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The Tokyo company said it aims to use the new capital to facilitate commercialization of self-driving technology in private, depopulated and urban areas. Existing backers KDDI Corp., and AISAN TECHNOLOGY Co., also participated in the round. Ironically, Tokyo, Japan-based , which has been investing like crazy in North and Latin America, did not put money in this round.

Founded in December 2015, Tier IV doesn鈥檛 appear to have raised external capital prior to this financing, according to its SA国际传媒 profile.

Tier IV has developed something called 鈥淎utoware,鈥� or what it describes as 鈥渢he world’s first 鈥榓ll-in-one鈥� open-source software for self-driving technology.鈥� It is so far being used by more than 200 organizations, according to Tier IV, including the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), automotive manufacturers, and 鈥渕any self-driving startups.鈥�

The company said it has conducted field operational tests of self-driving vehicles powered by its technology in more than 60 regions in and outside of Japan. All the tests were conducted without any accidents, according to Tier IV.

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