Why TIER IV Is Backing a Taiwan Startup to Push Autonomous Driving Forward

Autonomous driving is often discussed in terms of futuristic cars and distant timelines. This investment is about something more immediate. Japan-based TIER IV has invested in Turing Drive, a Taiwan startup that builds autonomous driving systems designed for controlled, everyday environments such as factories, ports, airports and industrial campuses. The investment establishes a capital and business alliance between the two companies, with a shared focus on developing autonomous driving technology and expanding operations across Asia.

Rather than targeting open roads and city traffic, Turing Drive’s work centres on places where vehicles follow fixed routes and move at low speeds. These include logistics hubs, manufacturing facilities and commercial sites where automation is already part of daily operations. According to the release, Turing Drive has deployments across Taiwan, Japan and other regions and works closely with vehicle manufacturers to integrate autonomous systems into special-purpose vehicles.

The investment also connects Turing Drive more closely with Autoware, an open-source autonomous driving software ecosystem supported by TIER IV. Turing Drive joined the Autoware Foundation in September 2024 and develops its systems using this shared software framework. TIER IV’s own Pilot.Auto platform, which is built around Autoware, is used across applications such as factory transport, public transit, freight movement and autonomous mobility services.

Through the alliance, TIER IV plans to work with Turing Drive to further develop autonomous driving systems for these controlled environments, while strengthening its presence in Taiwan and the broader Asia-Pacific region. The collaboration brings together software development and on-the-ground deployment experience within markets where autonomous driving is already being tested in real operational settings.

“This partnership with Turing Drive represents a significant step forward in accelerating the deployment of autonomous driving across Asia”, said TIER IV CEO Shinpei Kato. “At TIER IV, our mission has always been to make autonomous driving accessible to all. By collaborating with Turing Drive, which has demonstrated remarkable achievements in real-world deployments in Taiwan, we aim to deliver autonomous driving that enables a safer, more sustainable and more inclusive society”.

“We are thrilled to establish this strategic alliance with TIER IV, a global leader in open-source autonomous driving”, said Weilung Chen, chairman of Turing Drive. “In Taiwan, autonomous driving deployment is gaining significant momentum, particularly across logistics hubs, ports, airports and industrial campuses. By combining our field expertise with TIER IV's world-class Pilot.Auto platform, we aim to accelerate the development of practical, commercially viable mobility services powered by autonomous driving”. Overall, the investment highlights how autonomous driving in Asia is being shaped by operational needs and gradual integration, rather than headline-grabbing demonstrations.

Keep Reading

Enterprise Technology

Neuron7’s Neuro Brings a New Kind of Intelligence — One That Refuses to Guess

Examining the shift from fast answers to verified intelligence in enterprise AI.

Ventureport Media Team

Updated

November 28, 2025 4:18 PM

Startup employee reviewing business metrics on an AI-powered dashboard. PHOTO: FREEPIK

Neuron7.ai, a company that builds AI systems to help service teams resolve technical issues faster, has launched Neuro. It is a new kind of AI agent built for environments where accuracy matters more than speed. From manufacturing floors to hospital equipment rooms, Neuro is designed for situations where a wrong answer can halt operations.

What sets Neuro apart is its focus on reliability. Instead of relying solely on large language models that often produce confident but inaccurate responses, Neuro combines deterministic AI — which draws on verified, trusted data — with autonomous reasoning for more complex cases. This hybrid design helps the system provide context-aware resolutions without inventing answers or “hallucinating”, a common issue that has made many enterprises cautious about adopting agentic AI.

“Enterprise adoption of agentic AI has stalled despite massive vendor investment. Gartner predicts 40% of projects will be canceled by 2027 due to reliability concerns”, said Niken Patel, CEO and Co-Founder of Neuron7. “The root cause is hallucinations. In service operations, outcomes are binary. An issue is either resolved or it is not. Probabilistic AI that is right only 70% of the time fails 30% of your customers and that failure rate is unacceptable for mission-critical service”.

That concern shaped how Neuro was built. “We use deterministic guided fixes for known issues. No guessing, no hallucinations — and reserve autonomous AI reasoning for complex scenarios. What sets Neuro apart is knowing which mode to use. While competitors race to make agents more autonomous, we're focused on making service resolution more accurate and trusted”, Patel explained.

At the heart of Neuro is the Smart Resolution Hub, Neuron7’s central intelligence layer that consolidates service data, knowledge bases and troubleshooting workflows into one conversational experience. This means a technician can describe a problem — say, a diagnostic error in an MRI scanner — and Neuro can instantly generate a verified, step-by-step solution. If the problem hasn’t been encountered before, it can autonomously scan through thousands of internal and external data points to identify the most likely fix, all while maintaining traceability and compliance.

Neuro’s architecture also makes it practical for real-world use. It integrates seamlessly with enterprise systems such as Salesforce, Microsoft, ServiceNow and SAP, allowing companies to embed it within their existing support operations. Early users of Neuron7’s platform have reported measurable improvements — faster resolutions, higher customer satisfaction and reduced downtime — thanks to guided intelligence that scales expert-level problem solving across teams.

The timing of Neuro’s debut feels deliberate. As organizations look to move past the hype of generative AI, trust and accountability have become the new benchmarks. AI systems that can explain their reasoning and stay within verifiable boundaries are emerging as the next phase of enterprise adoption.

“The market has figured out how to build autonomous agents”, Patel said. “The unsolved problem is building accurate agents for contexts where errors have consequences. Neuro fills that gap”.

Neuron7 is building a system that knows its limits — one that reasons carefully, acts responsibly and earns trust where it matters most. In a space dominated by speculation, that discipline may well redefine what “intelligent” really means in enterprise AI.

Business