Siemens agree to buy Dutch self-driving software specialist Tass International

German industrial group Siemens has agreed to buy Dutch self-driving software specialist Tass International for an undisclosed sum to strengthen its automotive business, it said on 30 August.

Tass makes software that can simulate complex traffic scenarios, validate autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance systems and replicate the impact of a car crash on a human body.

It has annual turnover of around 27 million euros ($32.3 million) and around 200 employees. “Tass International is a proven leader in both integrated safety and autonomous driving, two fields of engineering that are increasingly important for the industry,” Siemens’ Digital Factory unit Chief Executive Jan Mrosik said in a statement.

Siemens said it would combine Tass’s software with its own advanced simulation products as well as electronic design capabilities from recently acquired Mentor Graphics. Siemens bought Mentor Graphics for $4.5 billion earlier this year. It was its biggest industrial software acquisition.

This news comes after recently  after Siemens planed to invest 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) over the next five years in a new startups unit to help it develop businesses in areas such as artificial intelligence and decentralised electrification. The funds will be available to employees, external startups and established companies if they want to pursue business ideas in fields that are strategic to Siemens’ future, the trains-to-turbines group said