Washington, D.C., October 3, 2022 – Aeluma, Baraja, Ibeo Automotive Systems, and Valeo have joined the growing ranks of the Lidar Coalition, which was formed to advocate for policies promoting lidar’s role in enhancing safety on U.S. roadways and infrastructure, including mitigating the staggering rise in pedestrian fatalities on roadways in the United States, and for autonomous vehicle operations. The Coalition was founded in April of 2021 by AEye, Cepton, Continental, Innoviz, Ouster, Quanergy Systems, and Velodyne.
“Lidar-based vehicle technology has the potential to prevent pedestrian deaths and vehicle accidents, particularly in low-light and low-visibility environments,” said Ariel Wolf, Chair of the Autonomous and Connected Mobility Practice Group at Venable LLP, which serves as counsel to the Coalition. “The expansion of the Lidar Coalition will strengthen our ability to educate policymakers who are pursuing innovative solutions to our nation’s transportation challenges.”
Aeluma is the Coalition’s first member focused on developing and manufacturing semiconductor components for lidar applications. Commenting on the announcement, Aeluma CEO and founder, Jonathan Klamkin, PhD, stated, “As an innovative semiconductor company, Aeluma aims to service the lidar industry. By supporting the Coalition’s goals and activities, we believe lidar-enabled solutions for autonomous vehicles and safety critical applications will result in reduced accidents and fatalities in and around America’s roadways.”
“The devastating number of accidents on our roads warrants collaborative action from all those working on autonomous vehicle solutions,” said Federico Collarte, Founder & CEO of Baraja. “We believe that lidar is a fundamental part of the solution to improve vehicle safety and prevent such tragedies. Baraja’s competence in this field combined with the other partners’ in the Lidar Coalition will help educate and advocate for the use of lidar, making our roads safer.”
“Ibeo is honored to be a part of the Lidar Coalition and its focus to promote lidar sensors as a critical technology to unlock hosts of solutions to improve overall transportation safety. A future without road accidents is part of our mission, and we believe that lidars are key to that future. We are looking forward to participating in the Coalition to better accelerate the overall adoption of this category of sensors,” said Paula Jones, President, Ibeo Automotive USA, Inc.
“The development of lidar is at the heart of road safety issues,” said Marc Vrecko, President of Valeo’s Comfort & Driving Assistance Systems Business Group. “New features, such as automatic emergency braking, will become essential, driven by regulations or recommendations. Lidar is the key component that provides unparalleled high-precision environment perception. With it, safety takes a major step forward. Valeo was the first, and to date remains the only, company to produce an automotive lidar scanner on an industrial scale. As Valeo has a strong leadership position in this domain, it is very important to join the coalition to accelerate knowledge sharing, technology compatibility and therefore, quite simply, the diffusion of lidar.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that 42,915 people died on U.S. roadways in 2021, the highest number of fatalities since 2005 and the highest annual percentage increase in the recorded history of data in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Pedestrian fatalities also increased by 13% over 2020, which outpaced the 10.5% increase in overall fatalities. Seventy-five percent of pedestrian deaths happen in low-light conditions, such as dusk and nightfall, that could be addressed using lidar technology.
The Lidar Coalition is focused on promoting the deployment of lidar-based intelligent infrastructure and automotive safety technology. Light Detection and Ranging, or “lidar,” is a remote sensing method that uses invisible light pulses to illuminate and create a 3D map of the surrounding environment. Lidar is an important component in emerging transportation technologies including smart infrastructure, traffic management, autonomous vehicles, advanced driver assist systems, and many other applications. The Lidar Coalition engages in public policy advocacy, educational efforts, and thought leadership to maximize the public benefit of lidar deployment.
Aeluma, Inc. has pioneered a technique to manufacture devices using high-performance compound semiconductor materials on large diameter silicon wafers that are commonly used for mass market microelectronics. The technology has the potential to enhance performance and provide a path to cost-effective, large-scale manufacturing, both of which are critical for future lidar and other sensor applications.
Baraja has invented a new type of lidar called Spectrum-Scan™ which delivers the highest performance available to address the challenge of self-driving cars. Using prism-like optics and highly tuneable lasers, Baraja has developed a fast axis scanning method that provides the resolution and clarity necessary for complex automotive application – without any trade-offs. Spectrum HD lidar sensors use homodyne detection to measure the distance and velocity of an object within a single frame, at every point in the lidar pointcloud.
Ibeo Automotive Systems GmbH is a global technology leader for lidar and the associated products and software tools used in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) automated driving (AD). Ibeo’s mission is to reinvent mobility by transforming vehicles into cooperative partners, thus making road traffic even safer. In addition to our state-of-the-art automotive lidar sensors, Ibeo develops software for environmental perception, as well as automated referencing tools for AD systems and ADAS validation.
As a technology company and partner to all automakers and new mobility players, Valeo is innovating to make mobility cleaner, safer and smarter. Valeo has technological and industrial leadership in electrification, ADAS, reinvention of the onboard experience and lighting. These four areas are vital to the transformation of mobility and will drive Valeo’s growth in the coming years.