Embotech Since the EIC Accelerator: Driverless Cars in BMW Plants

In 2019 the European Union paid a Zurich software company to make self-driving cars plan their own moves. Embotech, a 2013 spin-off of ETH Zurich's Automatic Control Laboratory, told the Commission it wanted to become "the world independent leader supplier of motion planning software for autonomous driving", selling to carmakers and their suppliers on a royalty per vehicle. It was selected in the EIC SME Instrument Phase 2 cut-off of 3 April 2019 and received an EU contribution of €2,489,200 towards a €3,556,000 project called EMP, according to CORDIS and the Commission's list of selected companies, which names Embotech AG as the project's only beneficiary.

Seven years later the software does drive cars, but not on public roads. Embotech's systems steer brand-new BMWs without anyone at the wheel from the end of the assembly line to the finishing area in several BMW plants, and its autonomous container tractors run at APM Terminals Maasvlakte II in Rotterdam. In July 2026 the company said its Level 4 platform moves "more than 2,500 vehicles daily" across factories, logistics centres and ports, according to a partnership announcement with HTEC also published on Business Wire.

What Embotech Does Now

Embotech is still operating. The Zurich commercial register lists embotech AG as existing, with its last publication on 4 September 2026, when Mehran Zaker of Emerald Technology Ventures replaced Hans Oury as chair and the share capital rose to CHF 529,505, according to the cantonal register excerpt and North Data. It moved from Technoparkstrasse 1, the address on its EU grant, to Hardturmstrasse 11 in November 2025.

The company sells two products, both built on the motion planning software the EU funded. Automated Vehicle Marshalling (AVM) drives finished cars around factory grounds without any sensors or autonomy hardware in the car: lidars mounted on the site's infrastructure track each vehicle, an off-board computer plans its path, and the trajectory is sent to the car by radio. The Autonomous Tractor Solution (ATS) is a kit that turns a terminal tractor into a Level 4 vehicle for container ports, according to the company website.

The Technology: Optimisation Instead of Scripts

Embotech contrasts its method with systems that rely on pre-programmed scenarios. Its approach, as described in its final EMP report, is to treat each manoeuvre as a mathematical optimisation problem over a physics model of the vehicle and its surroundings, solved in milliseconds on standard automotive control units. "We do not pre-program scenarios, which means that our software can drive even in situations never encountered before," the company wrote. The name itself is short for embedded optimisation technologies, and its optimisation engine for engineers, FORCESPRO, is a product that Startupticker still listed among its products in 2021.

The distinctive choice in AVM is where the intelligence sits. Rather than equipping every car with sensors, BMW installs what it calls "the biggest LIDAR infrastructure in Europe" along the routes, and the plant system drives each car remotely, according to BMWBlog. Embotech says the system needs no changes to the vehicles and can be adapted to any model and to changing factory layouts, according to the Series B announcement reprinted by AJOT.

What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

The award had a forerunner. In December 2018 Embotech received €50,000 under SME Instrument Phase 1 for a four-month feasibility study, also called EMP, which concluded that the project was feasible and described three planned modules for parking, highway cruising and urban driving, according to its CORDIS report. The Phase 2 project ran from 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2021, on schedule. Its objective was to test the motion planner "in Level 4 autonomous cars with the support of several automotive industry players" and to enter the market as an independent supplier to carmakers and Tier 1 suppliers.

The final report claims three software releases, tests with Tier 1 suppliers and carmakers in Europe, North America and Australia, and five patent filings. It also records the turn that shaped the company: "We are now growing vertical within the logistics automation market." No carmaker has announced Embotech's motion planner in a series-production road car, and the royalty model in the proposal does not appear in any later company statement.

1. Motion planning releases for highway, parking and combined drivingDeliveredThree packages released and tested with customers, per the CORDIS report.
2. Protect the technologyDeliveredFive patents filed during the project; North Data lists further European filings in every year from 2022 to 2026.
3. Functional safety certificationLateStill in progress when the project closed; TÜV SÜD attested AVM's conformity in June 2024, per Embotech and CARIAD.
4. Level 4 driving with automotive partnersPartlyAchieved on factory grounds at BMW from July 2022, not on public roads.
5. Independent motion planning supplier to carmakers, royalty per vehicleNot achievedNo series-production road car licence announced; the business sells complete logistics systems instead.

That makes the project partly delivered. The technology the EU paid for exists, is patented and runs in production every day. The market the proposal described, motion planning sold to the car industry for robotaxis, shuttles and private self-driving cars, is not where it runs.

What Embotech Has Achieved Since the Award

The pivot to private grounds paid off first at BMW. Driverless 7 Series and 5 Series cars have moved themselves through the Dingolfing plant since July 2022, and in November 2024 BMW said Leipzig was running the system, with Regensburg and the MINI plant in Oxford to follow in 2025 and Debrecen in Hungary when production of the next iX3 begins, according to BMWBlog. In its December 2024 Series B announcement Embotech said it had a multi-year contract to install AVM in six BMW car plants "by the end of 2025", including Spartanburg in South Carolina, according to Emerald Technology Ventures and AJOT.

That deadline was missed. The project page of the Swiss Association for Autonomous Mobility, checked in October 2026, lists four BMW plants in operation, three in Germany and Oxford, with Hungary and Spartanburg still planned. The same page claims more than 375,000 vehicles driven autonomously and over 22,000 driverless operating hours. In December 2025 Embotech also completed a proof of concept with CARIAD, the Volkswagen Group's software company, on a Volkswagen ID.3, which is not a production contract.

The port business is younger. Embotech is fitting its kit to Terberg terminal tractors for APM Terminals Maasvlakte II, which plans a fleet of 30. The first five passed site acceptance tests in November 2025, the system received TÜV SÜD certification and CE marking at the end of 2025, and a third batch in April 2026 brought the fleet on site to ten, according to Terberg and El Estrecho Digital. The Series B announcement had promised 30 units "over the next 2 years", which would mean by December 2026.

The Money

Private investors followed the grant. In December 2021 Embotech raised CHF 10 million in a Series A led by ZF Friedrichshafen with the South Korean fund FuturePlay and existing investors including Bystronic, bringing its total raised to CHF 17 million, when it had 45 employees, according to Startupticker and Greater Zurich Area. In December 2024 it closed a CHF 23.5 million Series B led by Emerald and Yttrium, with BMW i Ventures, Nabtesco Technology Ventures, Sustainable Forward Capital and RKK VC, according to Emerald and the company's lawyers Walder Wyss.

The register shows more capital coming in than has been announced. Nominal share capital rose to CHF 504,835 in April 2026 and to CHF 529,505 in September 2026, after CHF 388,260 at the close of the Series B, according to North Data's record of the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce. Who subscribed and at what price is not public. Embotech is not in the EIC Fund portfolio; all 16 pages of the list were checked, and its award was a grant only.

Embotech is also listed as a participant in ICONIC, a Horizon Europe project on wind farm control running from December 2023 to November 2027, with a net EU contribution of €0. CORDIS lists no other EU project for the company.

Why Europe Should Care

The Commission's Industrial Action Plan for the automotive sector of 5 March 2025 makes autonomous driving a flagship, with at least three large-scale cross-border testbeds from 2026 and harmonised rules for testing and deployment. Embotech shows the route that is working first: Level 4 autonomy on private grounds, where the operator controls the environment and safety can be certified, rather than on public roads. SAAM says Embotech holds the first Level 4 certification under the new European Machinery Regulation.

Its shareholders tie it to the European car industry: ZF Friedrichshafen led the Series A and BMW i Ventures joined the Series B, beside investors from outside Europe such as South Korea's FuturePlay. A Zurich company running driverless cars in German and British factories, certified to European safety rules, is the kind of supplier the action plan wants for automated driving.

The Verdict

Embotech has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.