Let's not forget that Luminar has an agreement with Mercedes from mid-decade.More Valeo Scala3 info. An announcement from them including us would be all we need to launch!
Valeos SCALA #LiDAR Series: Transforming the Future of #AutonomousDriving
A success story. One of a kind
Valeo continues to dominate the lidar industry with its groundbreaking SCALA series. SCALA 1, a revolutionary leap in lidar technology, has been integrated into premium Audi models like the A6, A7, and Q7/Q8. SCALA 2 made its way into Mercedes' luxury vehicles, and now, introducing SCALA 3!
Valeo proudly announces two major contracts for its third-generation SCALA 3 LiDAR with a leading Asian manufacturer and a top American robotaxi company, bringing in orders worth over €1 billion.
Key SCALA 3 Highlights:
• Expansion of Level 3 conditionally automated vehicles' domain up to 130 kph
• Paving the way for Level 4 robotaxi deployment at scale
• Unparalleled resolution with 12 million pixels per second and detection range up to 300 meters
• Perception and AI-based algorithms for safety and reliability
• Market leader with over 575 patents filed
Valeo's SCALA 3 LiDAR sets the standard for the next generation of highly automated systems, making autonomous driving a reality. With more than 10 years of development and 5 years of production, Valeo's lidar technology is reliable and globally recognized.
Discover more lidar insights and news by joining The Lidar Society
https://lnkd.in/eAMkmspa
Clément Nouvel are you ready to share some sneak peak of #lidar data?
Valeos SCALA #LiDAR Series: Transforming the Future of #AutonomousDriving | Lukas Timm
Valeos SCALA #LiDAR Series: Transforming the Future of #AutonomousDriving A success story. One of a kind 🔥👇 Valeo continues to dominate the lidar industry with its groundbreaking SCALA series. SCALA 1, a revolutionary leap in lidar technology, has been integrated into premium Audi models like...www.linkedin.com
https://investors.luminartech.com/n...-and-mercedes-benz-announce-broad-deal-across
After two years of close collaboration between the two companies, Mercedes-Benz now plans to integrate the next generation of Luminar’s Iris lidar and its associated software technology across a broad range of its next-generation production vehicle lines by mid-decade. The performance of the next-generation Iris is tailored to meet the demanding requirements of Mercedes-Benz for a new conditionally automated driving system that is planned to operate at higher speed for freeways, as well as for enhanced driver assistance systems for urban environments. It will also be simplifying the design integration with a sleeker profile. This multi-billion dollar deal is a milestone moment for the two companies and the industry and is poised to substantially enhance the technical capabilities and safety of conditionally automated driving systems.
“Mercedes’ standards for vehicle safety and performance are among the highest in the industry, and their decision to double down on Luminar reinforces that commitment,” said Austin Russell, Founder and CEO of Luminar. “We are now set to enable the broadest scale deployment of this technology in the industry. It’s been an incredible sprint so far, and we are fully committed to making this happen – together with Mercedes-Benz.”
“In a first step we have introduced a Level 3 system in our top line models. Next, we want to implement advanced automated driving features in a broader scale within our portfolio,” said Markus Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes Benz Group AG and Chief Technology Officer, Development & Procurement. “I am convinced that Luminar is a great partner to help realize our vision and roadmap for automated and accident-free driving.”
Luminar have 2 years cooperation with Mercedes. On the LiDaR front, Valeo has been with them for 3 generations of Scala.
Luminar have a foveated LiDaR system which it enables it to focus its light spots on points of interest. This feature may give Luminar an advantage over longer range detection. I'm pretty sure there are other LiDaR companies with foveated LiDaR systems.
The article says "across a broad range of its (Mercedes) next generation production vehicles". So that seems to fall short of "all its next gen production vehicles".
I don't recall Luminar having digital SNN technology.
US10491885B1 Post-processing by lidar system guided by camera information
. The point cloud is sent to a 3D modeling processor 116 to be used in generating a 3D model 118 of the scene. The controller may alternatively be a part of the modeling processor or independent as shown.
[0032] ... The integral images are then tested by a cascaded sequence of classifiers to arrive at detected objects. Alternatively, a convolutional neural network (CNN) approach such as Faster Regional CNN or You Only Look Once type object detection, classification, and localization may be used. The CNN engine may include image buffers alternating with convolutional layers connected in a cascading sequence to produce a final object image or set of object images as outputs. These buffers and layers may be implemented in general purpose, graphics, or specialized neural network circuits. As mentioned above, the detected object is then tracked in the lidar point cloud.
Luminar's discussion of NNs does not disclose a deep knowledge of the topic. They know of them, but not about them.
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US11361449B2 Neural network for object detection and tracking 2020-05-06
[0083] Because the blocks of FIG. 3 (and various other figures described herein) depict a software architecture rather than physical components, it is understood that, when any reference is made herein to a particular neural network or other software architecture component being “trained,” or to the role of any software architecture component (e.g., sensors 102 ) in conducting such training, the operations or procedures described may have occurred on a different computing system (e.g., using specialized development software). Thus, for example, neural networks of the segmentation module 110 , classification module 112 and/or tracking module 114 may have been trained on a different computer system before being implemented within any vehicle. Put differently, the components of the sensor control architecture 100 may be included in a “final” product within a particular vehicle, without that vehicle or its physical components (sensors 102 , etc.) necessarily having been used for any training processes.
The last sentence suggests that the Luminar system is not capable of machine learning in situ. My guess is that ML is necessary for a LiDaR system but I don't know this for a fact. So, while Luminar have very fancy laser optics, they do seem to be lacking on the NN/ML side of things.
Since Mercedes knows of the power saving performance of digital spiking NNs, will they prevail upon Luminar to incorporate it in their LiDaR?
Well, they've still got a couple of years ...
