Mar 21, 2017 11:47 AM EDT By Chris Brandt, UniversityHerald Reporter

When the name Professor X is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is the bald, soft-spoken professor on a wheelchair mentoring a band of mutants. However, a real Professor X exists but he is young and is constantly on his feet both figuratively and literally. Most of all, he has a mission to beat the major tech companies, like Google and Uber.

Professor Jianxiong Xiao was a professor at Princeton University where his students affectionately call him Professor X. However, he gave up that position along with being the director of Princeton's Computer Vision and Robotics Lab in order to establish his own startup at Silicon Valley.

He named his startup AutoX, which focuses on creating and developing self-driving cars. However, the Professor managed to keep his company under the radar until they filed with the California DMV to test the vehicles they developed.

After that, Professor X and his company suddenly found themselves pushed tot the limelight and was placed in the same level as Tesla, Uber, Google, and other companies who are working on self-driving vehicles.

When asked if he was not worried of facing the giant tech companies, he said that they have the talent, skills, and knowledge about computer vision that these big companies do not have. Evidence of that, he said, is that they were able to develop the exact prototype of self-driving cars these big tech companies have developed. And all these took place for only six months.

AutoX debuted its self-driving vehicle last week and captured the prototype in action in video. The car is actually a Lincoln MKZ 2017 model fitted with AutoX's technology. However, their technology showed promise as the autonomous vehicle navigates the streets near San Jose. Most of all, it has successfully managed difficult driving situations, such as cloudy days and evening.

With all that innovation, the question arises whether AutoX will become a David and beat the Goliaths, or it will fade into obscurity.

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