Hi Damo,
Mercedes potentially has more than one use.
For example, there is the well known "Hey Mercedes!", but they will also have in-cabin and driver monitoring which may also include Akida. Mercedes made some noise about designing their own electronics, but they will need to outsource the manufacture of the ICs etc.
Then there are the external sensors, camera, radar, LiDaR, ultrasound. Valeo are supplying SCALA 3 LiDaR which we hope will include Akida, and, of course, Akida can improve all the other sensors. Mercedes also said something about standardizing components.
Thus Meredes may fall into a couple of different classes of user/licencee.
Prophesee is a partner, rather than a customer. Initially, we may have had an EAP type agreement with Prophesee, and our engineers would have been working with them, but it is possible that we will have a Joint Development agreement with them rather than a licence. This may involve profit-sharing rather than licence/royalties revenue.
But Prophesee were well down the road with Synsense:
https://www.prophesee.ai/2021/10/15/synsense-prophesee-neuromorphic-processing-and-sensing/
Oct 15, 2021 – S
ynSense and Prophesee, two leading neuromorphic technology companies, today announced a partnership that will see the two companies leverage their respective expertise in sensing and processing to develop ultra-low-power solutions for implementing intelligence on the edge for event-based vision applications.
...
T
he partnership will address the design, development, manufacturing and commercialization of the combined neuromorphic technology, including sensors, processing solutions, software and solutions to enable a broad range of applications
...
The combined vision processing solution will be co-marketed by both companies and commercialized by SynSense for addressing IoT and Smart Home detection and gesture control applications.
Prophesee may well have ongoing contractual commitments with Synsense.
