Wuhan Opel Medical Technology Co., Ltd.

AkzoNobel is to bolster its performance coatings portfolio after reaching an agreement to acquire the wheel liquid coatings business of Lankwitzer Lackfabrik GmbH. Completion, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected before the end of 2022. Lankwitzer’s Rims and Wheel business operates out of a manufacturing site in Leipzig, Germany. Its products are approved for use by car manufacturers such as Daimler, Audi, VW, Opel, Fiat and Renault. “Acquiring this attractive business will complement our existing powder coatings portfolio and expand the range of innovative products we supply,” explained Michael Friede, AkzoNobel’s Chief Commercial Officer – Performance Coatings. “We’ll be able to provide a comprehensive liquid and powder aluminum wheel coating offering to customers, becoming a one-stop-shop for the wheels industry, which will significantly reinforce our position in an important automotive market.” He added that the intended deal is also another clear sign that the company is continuing to make good progress with its strategic ambitions: “It’s a great match which aligns perfectly with our Grow & Deliver strategy and will give us access to new sectors of a market with exciting opportunities.” Commenting on the proposed acquisition, Dr. Leo Rokeach, Lankwitzer Managing Director, said: “We’re immensely proud of the business we’ve built here at Lankwitzer Leipzig. It’s now time to let our people and clients benefit from a global environment, which AkzoNobel undoubtedly offers. Being part of AkzoNobel's worldwide activities will offer attractive growth prospects for the Leipzig site and its employees.” As well as the Leipzig facility, Lankwitzer’s wheel coatings business – which has a growing presence in China – operates laboratories in Germany (Leipzig) and Türkiye. The intended transaction follows on from a series of recent acquisitions by AkzoNobel over the last two years, including Grupo Orbis in Latin America, Titan Paints in Spain and Portugal, New Nautical Coatings in the U.S. and, most recently, the intended acquisition of the African paints and coatings activities of Kansai Paint.

DAYTON, Ohio, March 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oculii, a leading provider of advanced AI software for radar perception, today announced the launch of FALCON and EAGLE, the world’s highest-resolution commercial 4D imaging radar sensors. Leveraging its AI-powered Virtual Aperture Imaging™ software platform and existing automotive-grade radar hardware, Oculii redefines radar resolution and sensitivity to deliver unparalleled performance at price points several orders of magnitude more affordable than comparable 3D sensors. Radar, with its low cost, reliability, and all-weather vision, has transformed the automotive industry, powering innovations like emergency braking, blindspot detection, and parking-assist systems. However, due to radar’s limited resolution, it has fallen short of the automotive industry’s autonomy needs. Improving radar performance is possible by adding more antennas to sensors, but this approach significantly increases cost, size, and power consumption. Oculii’s revolutionary approach uses AI software to solve this hardware problem. Oculii’s AI-powered Virtual Aperture Imaging platform dynamically sends out an adaptive, phase-modulated waveform that changes in real time with the environment and then encodes that data over time, increasing the resolution of any radar hardware up to 100X. This improved resolution and sensitivity unlocks the potential of market proven commercial radars by enabling all weather sub-degree horizontal and elevation spatial resolution up to 350 meters around a full 360° field of view. “Oculii is challenging fundamental century-old assumptions about radar with a full-stack, holistic view to radar perception,” said Oculii CEO and Co-founder Steven Hong. “By developing an innovative AI platform that constantly learns from and adapts to the environment, we have radically transformed what is possible with radar perception - paving the road for a safer and more autonomous future.” EAGLE EAGLE is the world’s highest-resolution commercial 4D imaging radar, delivering joint 0.5° H x 1° V spatial resolution across a wide 120° H / 30° V instantaneous field of view. FALCON FALCON is the world’s most compact 4D imaging radar, delivering high-resolution performance in a 5cm x 5cm package that is smaller than a business card. While EAGLE and FALCON are full-stack sensor solutions, Oculii’s Virtual Aperture Imaging platform is hardware agnostic, highly modular, and available for licensing. “The value of Oculii’s Virtual Aperture Imaging software surpasses anything I have seen in the automotive radar industry,” said Oculii board member Karl-Thomas Neumann, the former CEO of Continental and Opel. “By finding a software solution to a hardware problem, Oculii has built a scalable perception platform that is software definable and continuously improves over time. This is a massive transformation for the radar industry that will benefit all Tier-1 suppliers and OEMs and make our roads safer and more autonomous.” To learn more about Oculii, visit . About Oculii Oculii is creating a next-generation AI software platform for radars that’s exponentially higher resolution, longer range, more accurate, and less expensive than conventional solutions – increasing safety and reliability. The promise of autonomous vehicles depends on high-performance, all-weather, low-cost and scalable perception technology, and Oculii is bringing it to the world. The company has raised more than $30 million from leading investors and strategic partners, and is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, with offices in Silicon Valley and Beijing. Media Contact: Hunter Stuart, hunter@propllr.com A video accompanying this announcement is available at 

Automotive industry veteran to provide strategic guidance to startup whose AI improves radar resolution for autonomous vehicles DAYTON, Ohio, Jan. 26, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oculii, the leading provider of AI software solutions for high-resolution imaging radar, today announced that Dr. Karl-Thomas (KT) Neumann, former CEO of Continental AG and Opel Automobile GmBH, has joined its Board of Directors, bringing more than 30 years of executive automotive industry experience to Oculii’s Board. “We are very excited to welcome Dr. Neumann to the Oculii team,” said Steven Hong, CEO and Co-Founder of Oculii. “KT’s perspective on how software will shape the future of the automotive and mobility industries is informed by his decades leading the world’s most prominent automotive companies. We are excited to have Dr. Neumann on our board to help guide us through our next growth phase as we bring our radar solutions into series production for OEMs and Tier-1s around the world.” Neumann brings over 30 years of automotive industry knowledge and experience to Oculii. He was CEO of the German automobile manufacturer Opel from 2013 to 2017, shortly after it was acquired by Groupe PSA from General Motors, making it Europe’s second largest automobile manufacturer after Volkswagen. Prior to Opel, Neumann held multiple positions with Volkswagen AG, including Head of Research, Director of Electronics Strategy, and CEO and Vice President of Volkswagen Group China. From 2004 to 2009, Neumann was CEO of the German auto supplier Continental AG, where he was responsible for the Automotive Systems Division and took company-wide responsibility for electric propulsion. Neumann’s addition to Oculii’s board is further validation of the company’s software-based vision for the future of radar, using AI to significantly enhance advanced driver-assisted systems today and enable fully autonomous driving in the future. “I’m proud to be working with Oculii to shape the future of autonomy,” said Neumann. “Oculii is a software solution to a longtime hardware problem. Without increasing sensor size or power, Oculii makes low cost, reliable commodity radar sensors autonomy-ready, with a 100x boost in resolution in any driving conditions.” Oculii’s software-driven approach has garnered the interest and excitement of automotive OEMs, autonomous vehicle companies, and robotic companies from all over the world. Oculii is partnering with leading chip suppliers to provide solutions for a breadth of customers and collaborating closely with Tier-1s to commercialize Oculii’s technology in radar modules today. “Tier-1 suppliers and OEMs can leverage Oculii technology today, and I couldn’t be more excited to be part of commercializing this technology,” Neumann added. Oculii has already won several design contracts with the leading automotive OEM and AV/robotaxi companies for series production, and will launch a new generation of high resolution imaging radar products at the end of Q1. For more information, visit: About Oculii Oculii is a high-resolution radar technology company enabling the next generation of autonomous systems. Powered by AI, Oculii software increases the resolution of any radar hardware by up to 100x, providing the automotive, robotics and drone industries a high resolution and low-cost autonomous perception solution that works in any environment. The company has raised more than $30M from leading investors and strategic partners, and is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, with offices in Silicon Valley and Beijing. Media Contact: Jillian Smith, jillian@propllr.com