Aeva, a Silicon Valley-based company founded by Soroush Salehian and Mina Rezk, is known for creating sensors that track real-time velocity. Rezk previously designed optical hardware for Nikon and worked with Salehian at Apple in a Special Projects Group.
Like Lidar, Aeva’s sensors can track the distance between objects and it can accurately record reflectivity and the distance between objects based on the time. Lidar generally provides indirect velocity data by rapidly beaming individuals pulses of laser light and produces frames milliseconds apart and occasionally omits nearby objects. However, Aeva’s sensor sends out a continuous wave embedded with a unique signature.
Aeva has raised $45 million in a Series A round of funding led by Lux Capital and Canaan. Aeva will be using the funding to expand operations and it has a goal of being able to supply its sensor units to auto and technology customers in high volume within the next couple of years, according to Forbes. “We think there’s a need for a generational leap, and we want to create the next generation of sensing technology for autonomous vehicles that is safe, simple and scalable,” Aeva co-founder said Salehian via Forbes.
Aeva’s sensing system is able to detect what an object is from over 200 meters and can simultaneously identify whether it is a car or a person plus how fast it is going. Plus it can predict what it is about to do within several seconds.
Currently, Aeva has about 50 employees and the company is now selling sensors to OEMs and manufacturers. These customers are “key” automotive and ride-sharing companies representing “many millions” of units a year, according to VentureBeat.
