Austin, Texas, Aug. 6, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Drako Motors Inc. debuted today as an electric sports car software platform provider, and introduced its flagship product, Drako DriveOS™. Drako DriveOS is a high performance, single VCU (vehicle control unit) operating system with four wheel torque vectoring. Drako DriveOS controls all four wheels independently with proactive millisecond acceleration and deceleration, delivering a level of drivability, corner control, performance and safety that is not possible with conventional drivetrains.
In other news today, Drako Motors also announced Drako DriveOS' success in equipping the Metropolia Electric RaceAbout demonstration vehicle to set a new lap record during testing at Germany's Nürburgring Nordschleife - the world premier testing site for car driving dynamics, with 73 corners, and variable surfaces and weather conditions.
Drako Motors Company Focus: Software Platform for Electric Sports Cars
Drako Motors was founded in 2013 tobring the benefits of a single VCU and individual wheel torque vectoring to drive systems, addressing four key problems and limitations of today's vehicles:
- Oversteer and understeer when cornering
- Safety and drivability under diverse weather and road conditions
- Functional safety challenges related to increasing multi-electronic control unit integrations
- Local and remote cyber-safety and privacy vulnerabilities
"The Drako DriveOS dramatically improves electric sports car performance and control during cornering, while delivering unrivaled stability and traction during adverse environmental conditions," said Dean Drako, president & CEO of Drako Motors. "Our technology platform takes electric vehicles to a new level in performance, handling and safety."
Drako DriveOS: Operating System Platform for Drivetrains
The new Drako DriveOS, instrumental in setting a new lap record for street-legal electrical cars at the Nordschleife, includes the following unique features:
Individual Wheel Acceleration & Deceleration - Performance, Control & Safety
The DriveOS four wheel torque vectoring system can dynamically apply both positive and negative torque to individual wheels as required in under 10 milliseconds, delivering top performance with minimal driver input. It dramatically improves drivability and performance, using precisely tuned algorithms to virtually eliminate understeer and oversteer.
Traction and Stabilization - Safety under adverse conditions
Drako Motors' virtual quad sport differential is substantially faster than traditional mechanical differentials, enabling proactive electronic stabilization and traction control; the technology makes the vehicle extremely safe at high speeds and under nearly all weather and road conditions.
The Drako DriveOS supports any power distribution ratio, in contrast to mechanical differentials which have a limited power distribution range for front-to-rear and left-to-right splits.
The effectiveness of the four wheel torque vectoring system is clearly visible in the in-car footage of the record-breaking run, as the vehicle tackles the tough Nordschleife corners. The DriveOS almost completely eliminates the mid-corner corrections that are evident in many other vehicles under such high speed cornering conditions.
Single Vehicle Control Unit (VCU)- Precise Function Coordination
Drako DriveOS has a single VCU which provides four wheel electronic torque vectoring, four wheel regenerative braking, electronic stability control, traction control, battery management, and instrument display interface all in a single unit.
New automobiles today typically have 100 million+ lines of code, with 100+ discrete and separate electronic control systems. DriveOS' single VCU drivetrain architecture reduces redundancy and integration overhead, resulting in fewer lines of code and simplified implementation and testing. At the same time, it delivers more precise coordination of these systems, functional safety, and higher reliability.
Drako Motors will license the DriveOS platform to electric vehicle manufacturers starting in early 2017. Electric vehicles will be able to deliver more compelling performance, handling and safety levels. Manufacturers can also offer their customers increased road traction in adverse weather and road conditions, as well as stability and predictability in emergency situations. Our technology platform takes electric vehicles to a new level of performance, handling and safety.
Drako Motors Executive Management
Drako motors was founded by automotive technology and software technology pioneers.
Dean Drako, President and CEO. Dean Drako has founded and run several successful companies - delivering technology to address demanding problems across multiple industries. Drako is best known as president and CEO of Barracuda Networks, which he founded to solve the spam and email security problem, growing the company to be a security industry leader with more than $200 million in annual sales, and 150,000 customers.
Dean's other technology successes as founder and CEO include: overcoming the debug bottleneck for all the major semiconductor companies (Design Acceleration); resolving the problem of highly variable semiconductor project schedules and data security by using big data analytics (IC Manage); and replacing video recording systems with cloud video surveillance (Eagle Eye Networks). He recently acquired cloud physical security company Brivo, where he serves as chairman.
Dean has consulted on automotive electronics technology for Ford and General Motors. He serves on the University of Michigan advisory council. He received his BSEE from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and MSEE from the University of California, Berkeley.
Shiv Sikand, Executive Vice President. Shiv Sikand has led the design and development of products for semiconductors and electronic systems, including network and file system security. He has a passion for cars, motorcycles, and the physics and engineering of driving dynamics.
He has been obsessed with cars from a very young age and claims to be able to recognize any production car on the road today. Shiv received his BSc and MSc degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Manchester. He did his postgraduate research in Computer Science also at Manchester University.
Sami Ruotsalainen, Vice President Electric Powertrain. Sami Ruotsalainen has done extensive research and engineering development for automotive technology platforms and sensors, and is project leader and chief engineer for the Helsinki Metropolia Electric RaceAbout car. He lectures in automotive technologies.
Sami has been working on vehicles since his early teens, and by late teens he built and raced electric radio-controlled model cars. He was recognized by the Finnish Electrical Engineers Association for his Electric Vehicle development work, and won the Finnish national open electronics design contest for solid state turn-and-slip Indicator for flying gliders in zero visibility. Sami received his MSc. in Automotive engineering and Electronics engineering from Teknillinen korkeakoulu-Tekniska högskolan.
About Drako Motors
Drako Motors Inc. provides a software platform for electric sports cars to get maximum performance, safety, and cyber security. The lap record-setting Drako DriveOS operating system for drivetrains is a 4 wheel torque vectoring drive system with a single vehicle control unit (VCU), with proactive millisecond acceleration and deceleration of individual wheels. The Drako DriveOS delivers unrivalled cornering performance and control, along with stability and traction in diverse road and weather conditions. The headquarters is at 411 Brazos St, 4611 Bee Caves Rd, Austin, TX 78746. For more information, please visit www.drakomotors.com or call +1-512-910-7110.
A photo accompanying this release is available at:
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=34983
