In autonomous and self-driving vehicle news are Stellantis Venturs, SteerLight, Cyngn, Aura, Toyo Corp., Hesai & dSpace.
Stellantis Ventures Invests in SteerLight
Stellantis Ventures, the corporate venture fund of Stellantis N.V., today announced it has invested in SteerLight, the developer of a new generation of high-performance LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensing technology.
Employing silicon photonics technology, which combines a universal semiconductor material with the speed of photos, the SteerLight LiDAR senses the surrounding environment in three dimensions with higher resolution and precision, and at a lower volume production cost, than currently available LiDAR systems.
The technology has the potential to give drivers of future Stellantis brand vehicles better performance in a variety of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), including automated driving.
“A central aspect of our Dare Forward 2030 initiatives is identifying groundbreaking technologies that deliver substantial value to our customers on a large scale,” said Ned Curic, Stellantis Chief Engineering & Technology Officer. “Automated driving enhancements remain a top priority at Stellantis. The game-changing work at SteerLight can enable enhanced and widespread ADAS applications.”
“We see a great benefit from having Stellantis’ corporate venture fund recognize our innovation so we can unlock large-scale adoption of LiDAR for industrial and mobility applications,” said François Simoens, co-founder and CEO of SteerLight. “Our new LiDAR technology is key to support new services in the automotive industry, and we are looking forward to working together to advance the next generation of vehicles.”
SteerLight, a spinoff of the French CEA-Leti technology center, employs Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) LiDAR based on silicon photonics technology that puts the system on a microchip. The system is robust (no moving parts) and compact, maximizing flexibility for vehicle engineers. It overcomes challenges of today’s LiDAR technology for vehicles – component size and high cost. The FMCW technology provides highly accurate depth and velocity data while resisting interference from the surrounding environment and other users.
Cyngn DriveMod Tugger for Rivian in Normal
Cyngn Inc. (the “Company” or “Cyngn”) (Nasdaq: CYN), a developer of AI-powered autonomous driving solutions for industrial applications announced its initial DriveMod Tugger deployment with Rivian, the innovative leading electric vehicle manufacturer. The deployment was at Rivian’s Normal, IL manufacturing facility.
This deployment continues to emphasize the commercial interest Cyngn’s Enterprise Autonomy Suite (EAS) products are garnering with customers that manufacture vehicles and other heavy equipment.
Cyngn CEO, Lior Tal, said: “This progress continues to underscore the manufacturing sector’s growing need and willingness to adopt autonomous solutions. We are finding a sweet spot with companies that do high-uptime heavy manufacturing in domains like automotive, agricultural equipment, and defense.”
Cyngn’s recent progress with major manufacturing players, including a Fortune 100 Heavy Equipment Manufacturer, demonstrates the commercial momentum of its autonomous DriveMod solutions. By harnessing the power of AI, Cyngn is not only meeting the demands of today’s manufacturers but also actively contributing to the evolution of smart, connected, and efficient manufacturing ecosystems.
Telechips Invests in Aura RADAR
Telechips (KOSDAQ:054450), led by CEO Jangkyu Lee, is looking to increase its presence in the advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) semiconductor market through investment in a digital imaging radar (RADAR) company.
On March 19th, 2024, Telechips announced its agreement to invest an undisclosed amount in Aura Intelligent Systems (“AURA”), a radar technology solution development firm based in Boston, USA. Telechips joins existing investors including a semiconductor legend Ray Stata (Founder of ADI), Activate Global, and GigaScale Capital. AURA specializes in next-generation radar technologies for Autonomous Driving. Aura’s high-resolution radars, combined with cameras and LiDARs, provide 360-degree coverage of the environment and enhance AD performance and safety. AURA’s patented technology overcomes the critical limitations of existing radars, which suffer from low resolution and phantom targets due to radio interferences.
AURA’s groundbreaking “high-fidelity, high-resolution imaging radar” technology promises to address existing radar’s resolution and interference problems, offering an innovative solution that complements cameras and LiDARs. Once commercialized, the company anticipates positioning its product as a critical sensor for autonomous driving.
Dr. Jungah Lee, CEO of AURA, stated, “Today’s radar technology dates back to the 1950’s. Aura is bringing in digital disruption to radars, just like what happened in the mobile phone industry. Aura has been advancing the technology with support from DARPA and MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Aura’s software-defined imaging radar will unlock new possibilities in autonomous mobility. The strategic investment and collaboration with Telechips will help accelerate technology commercialization.” A former Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Lucent Technologies-Bell Labs, she served as a Senior Vice President at Samsung Electronics, leading technology and systems innovations. With over 40 patents in mobile communications and radar imaging, she is recognized as a leader in the radar imaging field.
Jangkyu Lee, CEO of Telechips, said, “With our successful entry into the autonomous driving market and strategies for next-generation semiconductor technology, AURA’s patented technology presents promising prospects for future growth. Through this investment, we will focus on enhancing business cooperation with our AI semiconductor chips, such as the high-performance vision processor ‘N-Dolphin’ and the AI accelerator ‘A2X.’
Telechips also said it will participate in the ‘Embedded World 2024’, scheduled in Nuremberg, Germany from April 9th to 11th (Hall 4-561). The company will showcase its comprehensive automotive SoC line-up, including AI chips, high-performance computing (HPC), microcontrollers (MCU), and network chips. For exhibition inquiries, please contact Telechips Europe branch (sales_eu@telechips.com).
TOYO Corp ViLS Selected by Automaker
TOYO Corporation, the leading test and measurement company, announced the recent selection of its vehicle-in-the-loop simulator (ViLS) by a top U.S. automaker for testing and validating their next generation of electric and autonomous vehicles. This marks the company’s second purchase; the system is valued in the multi-millions of dollars, making it one of the biggest orders ever awarded to TOYO for the ViLS platform.
TOYO’s ViLS enables automotive engineers to conduct a wide array of vehicle, environmental, and road tests under realistic conditions in a cost-effective and safe laboratory environment. Specifically tailored to support the CASE paradigm (Connected, Autonomous/Automated, Shared, Electric), the TOYO ViLS platform integrates leading components, including Rototest Energy Powertrain dynamometers, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, and True Sim, a professional-grade driving simulator with augmented reality functionality.
Key advantages of the TOYO ViLS include:
• Portability and quick setup time
• High-torque force support
• 4-wheel independent control dynamometer system requiring only a flat surface and power
• Steering control and feedback during running tests
• Low-inertia drive motor unit
• Quick acceleration testing by eliminating tires
• 4-quadrant testing capabilities (forward, reverse, power running, regeneration)
• Running resistance testing, simulating hill conditions
• Options such as a blower for generating headwinds and an interface for linking external control systems
The automaker’s key test requirements encompass advanced driver assistance system software modules, high torque force tests, acceleration tests, adaptive cruise control tests, steering control and feedback tests, emergency and regenerative braking tests. And in December 2023, the company deployed and commissioned two ViLS systems that the automaker had previously ordered.
“We’re grateful for the ongoing trust from this U.S. automaker, validating TOYO’s dedication to our ViLS development,” said Toshiya Kohno, President/CEO at TOYO. “Their second adoption of our Vehicle-in-the-Loop Simulator highlights its unmatched performance, empowering engineers to accelerate next-gen vehicle development.”
As the automotive industry embraces technology fields such as computing, wireless communications, networking, sensors, radar, and artificial intelligence, TOYO stands ready to propel this vision forward with innovative test solutions like the ViLS platform.
To learn more about our automotive test initiatives, visit TOYO and TOYOTech on the web at https://www.toyo.co.jp/english/ and https://toyotechus.com/auto, respectively.
HESAI & dSpace
Hesai Technology, a global leader in lidar technologies for autonomous mobility systems, ADAS and industrial robotics applications, and dSPACE, one of the world’s leading providers of simulation and validation solutions for the automotive industry, have entered into a technology partnership to accelerate the development of ADAS and level 4 autonomous driving applications. As part of the partnership, dSPACE has integrated sensor models from Hesai into the dSPACE sensor simulation solution AURELION. Developers can now easily access Hesai lidar models via AURELION.
“Models for the most commonly used Hesai sensors are now part of our sensor simulation solution AURELION. By expanding our technology partnerships with the world’s leading sensor manufacturers, we are extending our testing capabilities and reducing our customers’ costs from the development phase through to validation,” explains Caius Seiger, Product Manager Sensor Simulation at dSPACE.
AURELION can be operated both in the cloud and locally on the user’s premises and generates photo-realistic images for camera simulation in real time. Ray tracing is also used to calculate realistic raw data for radar and lidar. The solution can be implemented in all phases of the development process – for example, software-in-the-loop (SIL) testing, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing, or in parallel validation in the cloud.
Hesai lidar products are proven in a wide range of applications worldwide, including passenger and commercial vehicles with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous vehicles, and robotic applications such as last-mile delivery robots and automated guided vehicles (AGV).
With the integration of the Hesai lidars, developers of applications for autonomous driving can flexibly use high-quality lidar models on the AURELION platform, which provides synthetic data for the development, testing, and validation of systems and solutions for autonomous driving. This reduces the costs for training corner cases and allows autonomous vehicles to be developed, tested, and validated more quickly.