June 19 (Reuters) - Honda Motor ( HMC )-backed Helm.ai

on Thursday unveiled its camera-based system to interpret urban

environments, dubbed Helm.ai Vision, and said it was in talks

with other automakers to deploy its self-driving technology in

mass-market vehicles.

Helm.ai is working with the Japanese automaker to integrate

its technology in the upcoming 2026 Honda Zero series of

electric vehicles, which will allow users to drive hands-free

and take their eyes off the road.

"We're definitely in talks with many OEMs and we're on track

for deploying our technology in production," Helm.ai CEO and

founder Vladislav Voroninski told Reuters.

"Our business model is essentially licensing this kind of

software and also foundation model software to the automakers."

The California-based startup's vision-first approach aligns

with Elon Musk's Tesla, which also relies on camera-based

systems as alternate sensors such as lidar and radar can

increase costs.

However, Voroninski said while Helm.ai has foundation

models that work with other sensors, its primary offering

remains vision-focused.

Industry experts say other sensors are critical to safety as

they can act as backup for cameras, which are known to

underperform in low-visibility conditions.

Robotaxi companies such as Alphabet's Waymo and

May Mobility use a combination of radar, lidar and cameras to

perceive their surroundings.

Helm.ai has raised $102 million to date and counts Goodyear

Ventures, Korean auto parts maker Sungwoo HiTech and Amplo among

its investors.

Helm.ai Vision combines images from multiple cameras to

create a bird's-eye view map, which helps improve the vehicle's

planning and control systems, the company said.

The system is optimized for several hardware platforms made

by the likes of Nvidia and Qualcomm.

This enables automakers to incorporate Helm.ai Vision into

their existing vehicle systems, which include their own

technologies for predicting and planning vehicle movements.