T R O P E R L A I C N A N I F Kay Talmi, we are holding this conversation in your new office. What was the reason for relocating within Berlin? Kay Talmi: Over the last ten years, HELLA Aglaia has grown from around 30 employees to some 300. At the moment, we are recruiting up to seven new employees each month. Looking ahead over the coming years, we could have a head count of as much as 500. Quite simply, we needed more space. However, the immediate surroundings are far more important for us. Our new location in Tempelhof is a veritable hot spot for Berlin’s digital economy and will doubt-lessly also spur our develop-ment additionally.KThe Ullstein House in the Tempelhof suburb of Berlin. An 80-metre-high brick building constructed in the 1920s that has recently become HELLA Aglaia’s head office. With over 300 employees, the company is one of the world’s leading suppliers of intelligent visual sensor systems. In a conversation, Kay Talmi talks about the relevance of computer vision for autonomous driving, new software- based business models and the particular role played by the Berlin location in HELLA’s global network. Software as a productIn this way, we have been able to accumulate unique expertise in camera-based assistance systems with a clear focus on software over many years.Now you have launched an entirely new approach in front-camera software. What makes this approach so special?We have developed an entirely new business model entail-ing an open software system that customers can assemble in accordance with their own requirements. Put simply, our software system is not tied to any particular hardware. Instead, it can be implemented flexibly on different semiconductor producers’ platforms. As well as this, customers are able to freely combine software components using our model as a basis. This means that, in addition to HELLA components, they can also use proprietary or third-party solu-tions. New functions can be con-veniently added by means of a software update. If, for example, the customer requires a further application that is already avail-able in addition to a pre-installed one, such as light control or lane, traffic-sign, pedestrian or object detection, this can be retrofitted to the system.This approach sounds vaguely reminiscent of an app store of the type used with smart phones or tablets. Obviously, the comparison only goes so far but you are not wrong in saying this. We are imple-menting a type of building-block system with our product, giving our customers almost limitless flexibility. > What are the main drivers behind this rapid growth?We are moving away from assisted and towards autono-mous driving. This is a contin-uous process that will unfold in several stages. Camera-based detection functions play a crucial role in all these stages. And this is precisely where our key skills lie. Indeed, Aglaia has been exploring this area very closely ever since its foundation in 1998. In 2006, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of HELLA. Its first series-production order was for the development of a front camera for an American original equipment manufacturer. In 2009, we decided to focus solely on the provision of software in the camera business. Looking back, this absolutely proved to be the right decision. Since then, we have developed various ready-for-series-production systems for original equipment manufacturers in conjunction with a major hardware supplier. We have developed a completely new business model for camera software. Kay Talmi, Managing Director, HELLA AglaiaSOFTWARE AS A PRODUCT 23360 DEGREES DIGITAL 2016/2017