Aeva, the company building the next-generation sensing system for
autonomous vehicles, today announced a partnership with AID-Autonomous
Intelligent Driving GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AUDI AG and the
“center of excellence” for Volkswagen Group’s autonomous driving system,
to bring groundbreaking 4D LiDAR to its autonomous vehicle program.
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Aeva will develop and equip its 4D LiDAR technology as a part of AID’s
new Audi e-tron development fleet vehicles in Munich, with the plan to
bring autonomous driving to urban mobility services within the next few
years.
“Aeva represents another important step in our goal to drive fully
autonomously across urban areas within the next few years. Aeva’s 4D
LiDAR technology is a clear top choice for perception with its unique
combination of long range, instantaneous velocity measurements at cm/s
precision and robustness to interferences in a single package,” said
Alexandre Haag, AID´s CTO.
“From early on, it was crucial for us to work closely with a seasoned
strategic partner that could help us showcase the impact of our 4D
LiDAR’s differentiating features in unblocking the limitations of
current perception solutions. Over the past year we’ve worked closely
with AID & VW group engineering teams through a comprehensive validation
process toward meeting the requirements of the next urban autonomous
driving system,” said Mina Rezk, Aeva Co-Founder.
How is Aeva´s 4D LiDAR Technology Different?
Unlike most conventional time-of-flight LiDAR technology – where
high-power pulses of light are used and the flight time for each pulse
is measured to create a 3D map of the environment – Aeva’s unique
sensing technology uses continuous low-power laser to sense instant
velocity of every point per frame, at ranges up to 300m. This produces a
4D map of the environment where the instant velocity information
drastically enhances the detection and classification of all critical
objects such as pedestrians, bicycles & vehicles at distance.
Aeva’s technology is also free from interference from other sensors or
sunlight. Together, these features strengthen AID’s proprietary
perception capabilities and fundamentally improve the safety of
autonomous driving vehicles.
“Audi’s AID is an excellent strategic partner for Aeva. Its position
as the center of excellence for autonomous driving within the world’s
largest OEM has provided us with invaluable feedback to continue
developing our product for mass scale. We are excited to work alongside
AID toward realizing a truly differentiated autonomous mobility system
that is safe, simple & scalable in the next couple of years,”
said Soroush Salehian, Aeva Co-Founder.
Watch this
video for more information about the partnership between Aeva and
AID.
About Aeva
Aeva was founded in 2017 by Soroush Salehian, and Mina Rezk —
previously engineering leaders at Apple & Nikon. Headquartered in
Mountain View, California, Aeva is building the next-generation sensing
system for autonomous vehicles that is safe, simple, and scalable. Aeva
is backed by leading investors including Lux Capital and Canaan
Partners. For more information, please visit http://www.aeva.ai/
About AID – Autonomous Intelligent Driving GmbH
AID-Autonomous Intelligent Driving is bringing together the world’s top
software, robotics, AI and automotive talents to build a future where
autonomous driving is embraced by humans. By understanding the human
challenges as well as the engineering ones, the technology we are
testing today on the streets of Munich will become the backbone of a
universal self-driving system – capable of transforming life in urban
environments for millions of people. With the agility of a start-up and
the support of Audi (VW Group), AID is free to craft an autonomous world
that works for everyone – from manufacturers to passengers to city
planners to pedestrians. For us, the future isn’t about merely making
vehicles more autonomous, it’s about autonomous people. To find out
more, please visit http://aid-driving.eu
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