Monthly Archives: August 2026

Seeing Machines set to become a robotics play

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Seeing Machines is increasingly looking like more than an automotive technology story. Indeed, it is on the path to becoming a robotics play.

The company has successfully completed a robotics proof of concept, and CEO Paul McGlone has said he expects it to progress into product development, licensing and ultimately revenue. There is no timetable yet, but the important point is that the technology appears to have passed the first big test: it works.

So what happens next?

One possibility is particularly intriguing. Mitsubishi Electric and Sony Semiconductor Solutions are establishing Advanced Vision Solutions, a joint venture focused on AI vision, factory automation, autonomous operation and physical AI. It is due to start operating in October.

Seeing Machines has not named the customer behind its robotics POC. Still, there are some intriguing clues pointing towards Mitsubishi. SEE has an established strategic partnership with Mitsubishi Electric Mobility under which the companies have explicitly agreed to explore adjacent markets, and SEE’s February investor presentation specifically identified ‘smart factory’ as one of those opportunities.

If so, a product-development agreement with Seeing Machines around the time the JV launches would be a very interesting development.

And Ambarella adds another strand to the story.

Seeing Machines already works with Ambarella, whose CVflow processors are increasingly being used for robotics and industrial AI. There is no evidence that Ambarella is part of the Sony-Mitsubishi JV — and it doesn’t need to be.

Seeing Machines could potentially be working with different hardware partners on different physical-AI applications.

That is what makes the opportunity so interesting.

The company doesn’t need to build the robots, cameras or processors. Its potential role is the perception and human-understanding layer that allows machines to understand people and their environment.

If that technology becomes licensable across multiple robotics platforms, the current valuation — largely based on automotive growth — could look very different.

And with the refinancing risk potentially disappearing at the same time, the next few months could be unusually important for SEE shareholders.

The writer holds stock in Seeing Machines.

Seeing Machines and Ambarella: from driver monitoring to robotics?

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Is Seeing Machines putting its human-perception technology onto Ambarella’s robotics processors?

Seeing Machines has a relationship with Ambarella that is considerably more substantial than a conventional technology partnership. The two companies first announced their collaboration in January 2022, when Seeing Machines agreed to bring its driver and occupant-monitoring technology onto Ambarella’s CV2x family of CVflow AI processors. The arrangement allowed Seeing Machines’ embedded Driver Monitoring Engine (e-DME) to use Ambarella’s CVflow acceleration engine, combining SEE’s perception software with Ambarella’s edge-AI silicon.

The relationship subsequently produced a concrete, integrated solution. In 2023, Ambarella, Seeing Machines and Autobrains demonstrated a single-SoC system combining forward-facing ADAS, driver monitoring and occupant monitoring. 

Crucially, Ambarella described its CVflow platform as an “open” AI-processing architecture that allowed both Seeing Machines and Autobrains to port their software stacks onto its silicon. 

This matters because Ambarella has subsequently expanded well beyond automotive. Its latest CVflow portfolio is explicitly targeted at industrial robotics and physical AI, with its CV7 SoC supporting applications including robots, drones, ADAS and DMS. Ambarella says its common CVflow architecture and SDK allow perception software and AI models to move across generations of its silicon with relatively little redevelopment. 

At precisely the same time, Seeing Machines is attempting to make a similar transition. Its new Physical AI platform and Perception Map technology are designed to give machines a real-time understanding of people, objects and their spatial relationships. The company has already announced a robotics proof-of-concept with a global industrial technology company focused on factory automation and human-robot interaction.

There is currently no public evidence that the new Seeing Machines robotics platform is running on Ambarella CV7 or that the unnamed robotics customer is using Ambarella silicon. It would therefore be premature to claim that SEE’s robotics technology is already part of Ambarella’s robotics offering.

But the possibility is compelling.

Ambarella is positioning CVflow as the low-power perception engine for Physical AI: cameras and sensors feed into its chips, which process the environment in real time for autonomous machines and robots.

Seeing Machines, meanwhile, is developing the specialist software required to understand the human within that environment — where they are, what they are doing and potentially what they are about to do.

The automotive relationship therefore provides an intriguing precedent. If SEE’s human-perception technology can be ported from Ambarella’s automotive chips to its latest robotics processors, the companies could potentially offer a powerful combination: Ambarella providing the edge-AI compute and Seeing Machines providing the human-perception intelligence.

That would move SEE’s opportunity well beyond driver monitoring and into the rapidly developing market for embodied or Physical AI.

Conclusion

When SEE demonstrates that its perception stack can be ported, the opportunity could extend well beyond Ambarella. Other chipmakers — from NVIDIA and Qualcomm to NXP and Renesas — are all competing to provide the computing platforms that will power the next generation of robots. 

If SEE can provide the specialist human-perception layer that sits on top of those platforms, chipmakers could have a strong incentive to incorporate or support its technology rather than develop equivalent capabilities themselves.

And that could fundamentally change the economics of the opportunity. Instead of Seeing Machines having to win every robot manufacturer individually, its technology could potentially become part of the reference platforms offered by the chipmakers themselves — giving robot manufacturers access to SEE’s human-perception capabilities as part of the underlying AI platform. 

For a company that has spent decades developing technology that enables machines to understand humans, that could open a market far larger than driver monitoring. Even a modest software or IP fee per robot could become significant if SEE’s technology were deployed across millions of machines.

The potential market

Goldman Sachs estimates that the humanoid robot market could reach about $38bn by 2035, with a more bullish scenario reaching $154bn. Annual humanoid shipments could rise from more than 250,000 in 2030 to 1.4 million by 2035.

Humanoids, however, are only part of the opportunity relevant to SEE. Its Physical AI platform is aimed at industrial automation, robotics and human-machine interaction, rather than humanoid robots alone. If SEE can establish its technology as a portable human-perception layer across multiple chip platforms, even a relatively small slice of this emerging market could become meaningful.

The question for management at Seeing Machines is therefore: “Is the new Physical AI/Perception Map platform processor-agnostic, and has it been ported to Ambarella CVflow — particularly CV7 — as part of the current robotics POC?”

The writer holds stock in Seeing Machines.

Seeing Machines is finally profitable – but what is it really worth?

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Seeing Machines has finally reached a milestone that long-suffering shareholders have been waiting for.

Following its FY2026 trading update and Q4 KPIs, the company has achieved positive adjusted EBITDA in the second half of the financial year.

After years of investment, Seeing Machines is beginning to demonstrate the operating leverage that should come as its automotive royalties ramp up.

But profitability may not be the most interesting development.

The production of 2.1 million vehicles fitted with Seeing Machines’ Driver and Occupant Monitoring Systems (DMS/OMS) in Q4 takes the installed base to around 8.2 million vehicles on the road.

That makes Seeing Machines the clear leader in camera-based DMS/OMS and, more importantly, demonstrates that its technology is now being deployed at a genuinely industrial scale.

The significance of that should not be underestimated. At the company’s half-year results, Seeing Machines had just over 4.8 million vehicles on the road. It has added roughly 3.4 million more in just six months.

The company has now moved from an investment story towards a profitable technology business.

Peter McNally, an Analyst  at house broker Stifel, appears to agree. In a note published following the latest KPIs, he described the figures as a potential “turning point” for the share price, pointing to further catalysts from rising production, a possible improvement in the Aftermarket business and a potential resolution of the company’s convertible loan note, which is due to be repaid in October.

That is the conventional Seeing Machines investment case.

But there is another story emerging – and potentially a much bigger one.

From cars to robots

Seeing Machines has now secured a contract to deliver a Proof of Concept for its Perception Map sensing technology for industrial robots.

The customer has been described as an unnamed global industrial technology company focused on factory automation and human-robot interaction.

We do not know who it is and I don’t think that is the most important detail. What really matters is that a serious industrial technology company is sufficiently interested in Seeing Machines’ technology to test it in robotics.

The customer may ultimately become a major commercial partner (or already be one). Equally, it may simply be the first of several companies now looking closely at what Seeing Machines has developed.

That is potentially much more significant than the value of the initial PoC.

For years, Seeing Machines has been developing technology that enables machines to understand humans.

In a car, that means recognising where a driver is looking, whether they are distracted or fatigued and what they are doing. The company has subsequently extended this capability into broader occupant monitoring and 3D cabin perception.

Now the same fundamental expertise is being applied outside the vehicle.

A robot working alongside humans needs to understand where those humans are, what they are doing and how they are likely to behave.

A humanoid robot operating safely in the real world will require an even more sophisticated understanding of people.

This is why the Perception Map development deserves attention.

It suggests that Seeing Machines’ technology may have applications far beyond the transport market.

The company’s addressable market could be changing from the monitoring of people in machines to enabling machines to understand people.

A technology looking for new markets

That distinction matters.

Seeing Machines has spent more than two decades developing expertise in computer vision, machine perception and human factors.

The automotive industry has provided the first enormous commercial opportunity for that technology.

But it will not be the last.

Over the next six months, its technology will be advancing across an extraordinary range of applications:

Autos.
Trucks.
Aviation.
Trains.
Industrial robots.
And potentially humanoids.

I am not suggesting Seeing Machines has suddenly become a humanoid robotics company. It hasn’t. 

Nor has it necessarily announced a contract with a humanoid manufacturer. Though some of its existing partners are moving in that direction.

The industrial robotics project is a Proof of Concept, and there is no guarantee that it will become a significant commercial business. 

But the technological progression is logical.

A driver-monitoring system needs to understand a human’s head position, gaze, attention and behaviour.

An occupant-monitoring system needs to understand multiple humans within a shared environment.

A robot working alongside humans needs to understand those humans and its surroundings.

And a humanoid robot will ultimately need to do the same thing in an enormously more complicated environment.

This is why I have long believed that Seeing Machines’ technology could eventually find its way into humanoid robots.

The opportunity is not necessarily for Seeing Machines to manufacture robots.

It could be much simpler – and potentially more profitable.

It could license the technology that helps those robots understand the humans around them.

And then there is Mitsubishi

I want to mention a thesis I first outlined more than a year ago: that Seeing Machines’ relationship with Mitsubishi could eventually lead to a takeover.

Mitsubishi Electric Mobility invested £26.2 million in Seeing Machines and now owns 19.9 per cent of the company.

The relationship has been focused on automotive applications, aftermarket sales and expanding Seeing Machines’ technology into new markets.

But the more Seeing Machines’ technology moves beyond cars, the more interesting that investment becomes.

Mitsubishi is not simply a Japanese automotive supplier. It is a huge, global industrial technology group with interests in factory automation and robotics.

Which brings me to the question I increasingly find myself asking: “What is Seeing Machines worth to Mitsubishi if its technology becomes strategically important to robotics as well as automotive?’

That is a very different question from asking what Seeing Machines is worth based purely on its automotive revenues.

If Seeing Machines remains primarily an automotive DMS supplier, Mitsubishi’s 19.9 per cent stake can be viewed largely through the prism of the automotive partnership.

But if Seeing Machines develops a commercially valuable perception platform that can be deployed in factories, industrial robots and eventually humanoid machines, its strategic value to Mitsubishi could be considerably greater.

And Mitsubishi is unlikely to be the only company capable of reaching that conclusion.

The race to secure the technology

This is why I don’t think it matters particularly who the unnamed customer is. 

The important development is that the technology has crossed another threshold. Someone operating in the industrial robotics industry is sufficiently interested to test it. 

If that Proof of Concept succeeds, other companies are likely to take notice.

They will have to ask themselves a simple question: if Seeing Machines really has developed a technology capable of giving machines a better understanding of humans, when should we secure access to it?

The answer may be different depending on the company.

Some may want a commercial partnership.

Some may want to license the technology.

Some may want to develop it jointly.

And some may conclude that owning the technology is preferable to licensing it.

That is where the strategic value of Seeing Machines becomes particularly interesting.

The longer the company remains independent while demonstrating successful applications in new markets, the more valuable the technology could become.

But that also creates a dilemma for a potential acquirer. Why wait until the robotics opportunity is proven if you believe it is coming?

An acquisition today could potentially value Seeing Machines largely on the basis of its rapidly growing automotive business, while giving the buyer the upside from robotics.

Wait until the technology is proven commercially and the price could be considerably higher.

And by then, other potential buyers may have noticed the same opportunity.

Could Mitsubishi make a bid?

I think that the most logical initial bidder for Seeing Machines would be Mitsubishi.

It already owns 19.9 per cent.

Its engineers have been working with Seeing Machines.

It has an established commercial relationship with the company.

And it has already conducted the due diligence required to make a substantial strategic investment.

The expansion into industrial robotics makes the relationship even more interesting.

If Seeing Machines’ perception technology proves useful in factories and collaborative robots, Mitsubishi would be exceptionally well placed to exploit it.

That does not mean a bid is necessarily imminent. I have no proof that Mitsubishi is currently preparing one, and investors should not confuse my thesis with an announced transaction.

But the strategic logic is becoming stronger.

I continue to believe that, if Mitsubishi eventually decided it wanted full control, a friendly transaction – potentially through a Scheme of Arrangement – would be the most natural route.

But I no longer think Mitsubishi necessarily needs to be the end point of the investment thesis.

The more important possibility is that Seeing Machines becomes strategically valuable to a number of global technology companies. For example, it is already working with Waymo – a subsidiary of Alphabet. It is working on AI brains for robots and SEE’s tech might be a useful addition.

If that happens, Mitsubishi’s 19.9 per cent stake could turn out to be considerably more valuable than simply a strategic investment in an automotive supplier.

Two potential catalysts

The next six months could, therefore, be exceptionally important for Seeing Machines for two reasons.

The first is the refinancing of its convertible loan note, which is on track to happen in the next few weeks.

Management has already indicated that it is working towards refinancing the facility. A successful refinancing would remove one of the principal uncertainties surrounding the company and allow investors to focus more clearly on the underlying business.

The second is the robotics Proof of Concept. 

A successful PoC would not immediately transform Seeing Machines’ financial results, but it could do something potentially more important. It could provide evidence that the company’s perception technology has commercial value outside automotive.

Put those two developments together and the potential significance becomes clearer.

The refinancing would remove the financial overhang at precisely the time that the robotics development begins to demonstrate strategic value.

That could create a catalyst not only for the share price, but for corporate action.

A potential acquirer looking at Seeing Machines today might see a profitable company with rapidly increasing automotive production and a promising robotics project.

Six months from now, it could instead see a profitable automotive technology company whose perception platform has been validated in industrial robotics and whose balance sheet has been strengthened by a successful refinancing.

That could be a very different proposition.

The inflection point

This is why I think the latest news represents something more important than a good set of quarterly numbers.

The automotive business is finally reaching scale.

Profitability has arrived.

The number of vehicles on the road is accelerating.

The Aftermarket business still offers upside.

The regulatory tailwind from mandatory driver monitoring is strengthening.

And, just as investors are beginning to see the financial rewards of the automotive investment, the company is opening another door into industrial robotics.

The real visionary in all of this may ultimately be Tim Edwards, who, alongside Seeing Machines’ original founders, began working decades ago towards a world in which machines could understand humans.

The technology is now moving into markets that barely existed when that journey began.

The next six months may therefore tell us considerably more than whether Seeing Machines can make money from driver monitoring.

They could begin to tell us what the technology is actually worth.

And perhaps the most interesting question is not whether Mitsubishi wants to own Seeing Machines.

It is: “What is Seeing Machines worth to Mitsubishi if its technology becomes strategically important to robotics as well as automotive?”

That is the question I suspect an increasing number of potential customers – and perhaps potential acquirers – will soon be asking themselves.

The writer holds stock in Seeing Machines.