The Second Act
A Deeper Dive into FRSX
The Preamble:
So first of all I want to say whoa, like wow, the amount of attention “Cracked the Code” got was insane. Thank you for the kind words and great feedback. For this segment I teamed up with Reddit User: u/Iskippedfaceday to deliver an even Deeper Dive into FRSX. u/Iskippedfaceday was one of the first to uncover the potential on Clean Spark (CLSK) he has been early to the party time and time again. His post history speaks for themselves and I was happy to make this a Smartrick-Iskippedfaceday Joint Picture.
The First Act (Cracked the Code)
The Second Act
Introduction
On April 1st, 2020, Foresight Autonomous Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: FRSX) announced its agreement with FLIR. Together, the companies will collaborate to establish a strategic plan to develop, market, and distribute Foresight’s QuadSight®️ vision system, combined with FLIR’s infrared cameras, to a wide range of prospective customers. (SEC 6k here)
This is a milestone announcement and agreement will be mutually beneficial to both FLIR and FRSX and per this agreement, FRSX will exclusively use FLIR thermal cameras in which the multi-billion dollar FLIR will sell worldwide. FRSX will be the newest team member in the “Thermal by FLIR” team. This team includes Bullitt Group (UK) Blackview (HK), Japanese juggernaut Panasonic, and more
Timeline (note above)
In this section I will be breaking down each event pictured above, these were all PR statements pushed out by FRSX via their website.
May 14, 2019- Foresight Autonomous Holdings announced that Cornes Technologies will have exclusive rights to promote and sell Quadsight system in Japan
The partnership of FRSX and Cornes Technologies is crucial to FRSX as Cornes Technologies is a clearinghouse. Cornes Technologies will act as the “salesforce” for FRSX’s products in Japan and will use their influence in the industry to expose FRSX to the market. Cornes Technologies is well established in Japan and has been around for over 70 years. See below their statement below from their website
Cornes Technologies is constantly seeking innovative products and advanced technologies to introduce to the Japanese market in response to the needs of business and industry.
February, 8, 2020 Foresight Receives Order of QuadSight® Prototype from a Multi-Billion Dollar Japanese Vehicle Manufacturer
Looks like Cornes Technologies is pulling their weight by with this announcement, an order from a multi-billion dollar Japanese vehicle manufacture could only lead you to believe in a few possible suspects. Here are the main details I pulled out of the PR announcement.
The order was placed after a live demonstration in January
The order was a *rush order*
The Automotive World Event is the world's largest exhibition for advanced automotive technologies. This year’s event was held on January 20-21 in Tokyo Japan. After doing some digging I found some very interesting information.
FRSX premiered its QuadSight®️ vision system at Automotive World Tokyo in its own dedicated presentation. (see above)
This event was filled with FRSX’s competition to include Velodyne (GRAF)
See Exhibit Floor plan for conference participants
*Note the location of Cornes Technologies’ booth*
Now that we’ve established the when and where from the PR let’s try to identify who. Currently, Japan’s auto market is dominated by the BIG 3 who are all multi-billion dollar car manufacturers they are:
Nissan
Honda
Toyota
Suspect #1: Nissan
Nissan in my opinion is the least likely candidate for this deal, has seen a decline in popularity in Japanese sales and in global sales. Nissan lacks the capability to utilizes FRSX’s LiDAR capabilities as it just announced level 2 autonomous driving with its all-new Next-gen driver assistance system.
Tetsuya Iijima general manager of advanced technology development for automated driving said this when asked about Nissan’s intentions in self-driving in terms of LiDAR technology. (per Reuters 2019)
Verdict: Likely not Nissan in PR
Suspect #2: Honda
Honda Motors the owner of Honda, and the more premium car company Acura are a big deal in terms of operations not only in Japan but Globally. Honda produces not only vehicles as it has its hands in the motorcycle, small engines, aircraft, and robotics. This conglomerate could be the candidate for this sale of FRSX’s technology based on its extensive R&D.
However in 2019 Nikkei Asian Review reported that Honda plans to launch a Level 3 self-driving system with the Legend sedan next year in Japan. The technology will use a Level 3 autonomous rating.
Verdict: Likely not Honda in PR however, Honda does support the capital to make such a move to level 4 autonomous driving.
Suspect #3 Toyota
Toyota Motor Corporation is the global leader in EV sales and ranks 2nd in total unit sales (Volkswagen #1). Toyota also produces vehicles under the brand names of Hino, Lexus, Ranz, and Daihatsu. Toyota’s global influence is unquestioned as it owns a stake in other car manufacturers Subaru, Mazda, Suzuki, GAC Toyota (China) FAW Toyota (China), Sichuan (China), and Toyota Kirloskar (India).
Toyota has been using LiDAR technology since 2018 introducing it at CES Las Vegas with its Lexus LS 600HL. LiDAR is the essential element in Level 4 autonomous driving.
In January 2020, Toyota unveiled its plan to create a “smart” city to test AI, robots, and self-driving cars. Toyota planned on having a fleet of e-Palette for the 2020 Olympics to transport athletes and even cars self-driving cars to carry the torch.
Verdict: Toyota is most likely the candidate in this PR due to their involvement with LiDAR technology. Also when the purchase was announced (February) the Summer Olympics were just months away could be the *RUSH* mentioned in PR.
April 1st: FLIR Systems, Inc. and Foresight Sign Agreement to Develop, Market and Distribute QuadSight® Vision System
I know I already touched on a few elements of “Team FLIR” but I want to focus in a little bit more on the importance of a few members.
Blackview:
Blackview or Shenzhen DOKE Electronic Co. is a cellular device company based in Hong Kong with 5G technology. Blackview is a growing company with ongoing global expansion. Blackview has seen direct grants awarded from the Chinese government
Other Labels Blackview goes by
DJI
DJI or Shenzhen DJI Sciences is the world’s leader in drone or Quadcopter production. They build drones for personal use, commercial use, and even supply their drones to the government for monitoring and surveillance purposes. Customers include the Chinese government, the Israeli Government, and currently are in discussions with the Australian Government.
Panasonic
Panasonic the Japanese mega-conglomerate is involved in almost every industry know to man. Most people know them as the semiconductor company, own one of their TVs, or as the battery provider for Tesla. However, they are much bigger than that, in 2018 Panasonic was ranked 13 in terms of tier 1 global automotive suppliers and in 2019 8th in terms of North American suppliers.
Panasonic has developed their own LiDAR 3D systems but these have been primarily used in the application of robotics. (note: Toyota autonomous village intentions of a fully autonomous Robots)
Ficosa
In 2017, Panasonic acquired 49% of Spanish tier 1 auto supplier Ficosa who primarily sells auto parts in the technology sector. Ficosa recently unveiled the first-ever digital rear-view camera system in a collaboration with Panasonic’s 3D image solutions.
Ficosa boosts a gaudy number of high-level customers (see below) and sells a variety of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) however LiDAR products have yet to be listed on Ficosa’s website.
Bonus info:
Panasonic’s 3D image solutions partners with Thundercomm Technology a subsidiary of Qualcomm. Qualcomm is the number 1 producer of Huawei’s 5G circuit boards.
