Dec. 6, 2022 — COLLEGE PARK, Md.– Quantum Computing copany IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) today announced new stages of its partnership with Hyundai Motor Company to develop machine vision algorithms capable of conducting object detection on three dimensional data from autonomous vehicles.The companies said their research applies quantum machine learning to image processing in which images – such as road signs – are encoded into a quantum state for classification and object detection. They said success of these early projects has led Hyundai to pursue additional joint research with IonQ on other new techniques, including analysis of spatial and environmental data from lidar and other sensors that could improve vehicles’ understanding of the nature and location of objects, people and environments around them.
IonQ said its quantum machine learning investigations have shown the potential to learn faster, be more effective in recognizing edge cases, generalize better, learn from lower resolution or noisy data and capture complex correlations with fewer parameters, which could “lead to quicker, safer and more accurate decisions without user input,” the company said.
Additionally, Hyundai’s earlier efforts to study lithium compounds and the chemical reactions involved in battery chemistry has led the group to expand its current scope and explore new metal catalyst chemical reactions for future vehicles. The collective insights and knowledge gained from the quantum simulations will enable Hyundai engineers to potentially develop higher-performance EVs at reduced costs.
“IonQ’s continued work with Hyundai strengthens both our beliefs that quantum will drive the next phase of innovations throughout the automotive industry,” said Jungsang Kim, co-founder and CTO, IonQ. “Autonomous vehicles are still in their infancy, yet the quantum-derived algorithms we’re testing today have the potential to shape the commerciality, efficiency and safety of such systems.”
Today’s projects follow IonQ’s recent announcement that it secured a $13.4 million contract to supply the U.S. Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) with access to its trapped ion systems for quantum computing hardware research and for the development of quantum algorithms and applications. Other commercial partnerships to have materialized in recent months include Airbus, GE Research, and Goldman Sachs, among others. Additionally, IonQ’s Aria system is the most powerful commercially available quantum system in the market with an industry-leading 25 algorithmic qubits.
