Stellantis Ventures (the corporate venture fund of Stellantis) announced it has invested in SteerLight (a spinoff of the French CEA-Leti technology center), the developer of a new generation of high-performance Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensing technology.
Utilizing 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 available LiDAR systems. The technology would improve the drivers’ performance of future Stellantis brand vehicles in various advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), including automated driving.
SteerLight uses Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) LiDAR based on silicon photonics technology that puts the system on a microchip. This system is robust (no moving parts) and compact while maximizing flexibility for vehicle engineers. And it overcomes the challenges of current LiDAR technology for vehicles: component size and high cost. This technology offers highly accurate depth and velocity data while resisting interference from the surrounding environment and other users.
KEY QUOTES:
“A central aspect of our Dare Forward 2030 initiatives is identifying groundbreaking technologies that deliver substantial value to our customers on a large scale. Automated driving enhancements remain a top priority at Stellantis. The game-changing work at SteerLight can enable enhanced and widespread ADAS applications.”
– Ned Curic, Stellantis Chief Engineering & Technology Officer
“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. 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.”
– François Simoens, co-founder and CEO of SteerLight
