Just one year after the emergence of Luminar being in stealth mode, the company which makes the laser LiDAR sensors that are used in self-driving cars is now ready to create an upgraded version of the sensor in higher volumes for distribution. Luminar is led by Austin Russell, a 23-year-old kid who is a whiz with optics.
The latest device the company is working on will be smaller and lighter. It will also require less electricity to power the 3D point cloud that maps out pedestrians, animals, bicyclists and other items that self-driving robot vehicles need to watch out for and may encounter. The company says that the quality of the laser this technology uses is just as good or better than any of their rivals. Design tweaks they have utilized will also make production much easier and quicker.
Quicker Production Times
Before, production for the optics essentially took a full day to complete. With the new changes to how it is produced, each unit can now be built in around eight minutes. Another huge factor that changed with the production is the cost to build each unit. After Luminar began working with the chip-designing company called Black Forest Engineering in Colorado Springs, the cost went from thousands of dollars to around $3 dollars each. This is a huge cost reduction.
These changes are essential for companies which supply the LiDAR sensors because it lets them keep up with the growing demand for them while self-driving car fleets are continually growing exponentially. In the next few years, the amount of these cars is anticipated to grow from a few thousand worldwide to many times that amount. Much of the competition across the globe are rushing to secure lucrative supply deals many tech and auto firms.
LiDAR stands for light, detection and ranging. These devices supply self-driving vehicles with ghostly images that are needed to detect objects and colors at close and great distances. Combining the LiDAR technology with the radar technology offers the ability for the vehicles to see all objects in a nearly three dimensional view, both in the daytime and at night. This technology offers the self-driving cars the ability to have better vision than any human driver. With the exception of Tesla vehicles, all major vehicles that are autonomous rely on the use of LiDAR technology as the eyes of the vehicles. There is still much to learn about this technology and a lot to continue to improve upon.
