In another sign of growing interest in self-driving cars, Chinese vehicle technology startup Momenta Tuesday announced it has raised $46 million.

The Series B round was led by NIO Capital and included Sequoia Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Shunwei Capital, Sinovation Ventures, Unity Ventures and, most notably, Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz.

Founded in 2016, Momenta is using deep learning-derived software for perception, semantic high-definition mapping and path planning to develop software that will operate self-driving vehicles. The company takes its data gathering seriously and is currently collecting 60 billion miles of data to assist in the development of software that can continuously find the best solution to cover all driving scenarios.

“We pioneer in understanding visual scenes,” the company says on its website. “Our trained deep-learning engine locates the vehicles, pedestrians, and roads and positions them into a 3D reconstructed map in real time.” Areas of specialized development include pedestrian detection, with Momenta claiming that its their “advanced perception technology detects pedestrians and identifies key body points to read their postures and possible intentions…we accurately measure the distance of every pedestrian from the car.”

The company was founded by Cao Xudong, a former scientist at Microsoft Research, with support from a range of computer scientists, including Yan Xia, who previously worked at Microsoft Corp. on the image search technology used in its Bing search engine.

Daimler’s participation in the round is notable as it’s the first time the German car maker has invested in a Chinese self-driving car firm, a move that will open doors for the company in the nascent Chinese self-driving car industry. According to The Australian, western car makers face high hurdles entering China because the country considers the type of mapping required for self-driving vehicles to be a national security issue and limits it to domestic companies.

Including the new funding, Momenta has raised $51 million to date. The company said it would use the new funding to further develop its artificial intelligence technologies, commercialize its high-resolution digital map technology and develop level-four, or nearly autonomous, driving technology.

Image: Momenta