According to the report of Memes, Lidar (hereafter referred to as LiDAR) has become a mature technology since the 1960s. Early applications include mapping for architectural and archaeological purposes, and NASA's ninth manned mission to the moon, Apollo 15, also used LiDAR technology to map the lunar surface. But until the beginning of the millennium, LiDAR attracted the attention of the automotive industry. LiDAR has the potential for continuous and high-precision 3D scanning and is very attractive to manufacturers involved in the development of early autonomous vehicles.
Since then, the technology has been improved, and the top-mounted LiDAR has become the regular "look" of companies such as Waymo for automated driving tests on public roads. But the LiDAR system has not yet entered mass production, with a single unit costing $75,000. The cost issue means that the debate about whether LiDAR can have a place in the automotive industry will continue. An important voice of this technology is the departure of Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, at a press conference in 2015. He believes that LiDAR is not a necessary technology and continues to claim that Tesla can be in two years in 2017. L5-level autopilot is achieved through a combination of cheaper sensors such as radar and cameras.
It is foreseeable that Tesla's CEO's comments have already caused strong opposition from some people, including General Motors (GM) self-driving car integration director Scott Miller said in late 2017 that "Tesla CEO for autonomous driving The saying is 'a nonsense'."
LiDAR is essential for autonomous drivingJason Eichenholz, co-founder and CTO of Luminar Technologies, a LiDAR technology development company, said the debate on LiDAR technology will come to an end. Eichenholz emphasizes that “real autopilot absolutely requires LiDAR technology†and Luminar's LiDAR technology is confirmed to appear on the Toyota platform version 2.1 and version 3.0 autopilot test vehicles. Eichenholz mentioned, “Once autonomous cars start to get out of closed roads and enter real roads, they must have '5 9' (99.999%) reliability. LiDAR technology is essential. Cameras and radars face reality. The boundary conditions of the driving scene lack the performance required to respond in time, and the scene around the car needs to be observed in 3D mode like the human eye."
Eichenholz’s stated boundary conditions refer to accidents that may occur spontaneously on the road, such as a child coming out of between two parked cars, a roadway closed down, and a semi-trailer painted in front of the driver’s sky The same color, 2D scanning device may not be able to interpret the above situation correctly. Adaptability makes humans well suited to deal with these accidents. Machines cannot be generalized.
Eichenholz continued, “If a car is parked on the side of the road, is it parked in a three-foot driveway? If I drive, we can see and make adjustments. The high-fidelity vision provided by LiDAR technology means self-driving. Cars can also understand the world around them and make decisions in advance."
Tom Laux, head of business development and sales at ConTInental's high-resolution Flash LiDAR division, said that Continental's suppliers are unable to determine whether the industry needs LiDAR, and it is clear that five 9 performances cannot be achieved with a single sensing capability. He suggested that "three sensors should be combined, and a 2D sensor like a camera can image signal colors, traffic signs and lane markers. Radar to determine speed, LiDAR provides accurate angular resolution and 3D in a more precise way. Imaging."
The importance of cost performanceBut how do you reduce costs to levels that OEMs can seriously consider? The answer lies in the solid-state solution, which Laux simply defines as having no moving parts. By reducing the cost by integrating all mechanical components onto the microchip, everything built using semiconductor based manufacturing techniques will follow the same cost curve based on the size of the manufacturing environment. He said, "In other words, the more you produce, the cheaper these things will become over time." Another key benefit is the removal of mechanical parts, which means better reliability.
However, Eichenholz also pointed out that we should not overemphasize the concept of “solid stateâ€. The most important thing is that suppliers can provide scalable systems that can meet performance requirements and mass production. Laux agrees with this view and says that only when performance requirements are met can the cost reduction begin. Luminar's system is built from the bottom up. Doing so helps the company solve many of the challenges encountered at the beginning, including scan range issues.
Laux said, "One of the key performance goals of the system is to detect targets with a reflectivity of only 10%, such as dark objects: tires or a black hoodie 200 meters away. This number is from each customer. The detection time collected there is approximately 7 seconds.†Laux believes that the range of objects that the system can detect is between 200 and 250 meters. In addition, the system must be able to withstand external disturbances from weather and other LiDAR systems. In order to meet performance requirements within cost, suppliers must continually innovate.
Bottom-up construction helped Luminar make infrastructure changes to increase the laser wavelength from 905 nm to 1550 nm, increasing power to ten times while remaining within the human eye. Eichenholz said the original 905 nm was the result of using a silicon receiver in the LiDAR system. Previous estimates of the use of indium gallium arsenide (hereinafter referred to as InGaAs) as a substitute are too expensive, which is a false assumption.
Eichenholz added, “We built our systems from scratch and went deep into the supply chain to optimize manufacturability. Our laser sources are highly scalable because they use the same devices as telecom equipment – ​​laser diodes and InGaAs Receiver, so we increased the wavelength to 1550 nm."
Continental also used InGaAs receivers in its high-definition 3D FLASH LiDAR system, and LiDAR developer Advanced ScienTIfic Concepts developed the business before it was acquired by Continental. Laux explains, “3D FLASH LiDAR emits a laser pulse for each frame. The laser pulse is like a flash on a camera. When it leaves the laser, it diffuses light to the receiver object through a diffuser. In the field of view. Therefore, whether it is dark or rain, floodlights are lighting artifacts."
Lack of intelligence?At the same time, San Francisco startup Aeye is focusing on artificial intelligence (arTIficial intelligence, hereinafter referred to as AI) technology used in solid-state products. Luis Dussan, founder and CEO of Aeye, said, “LiDAR itself lacks intelligence, and existing systems don’t take into account the evolution of the scene or the mission. They look around, scan in a fixed pattern, collect as much data as possible, There is no need to think carefully. 75% to 95% of the data is discarded because it is useless. Collecting unnecessary data will put tremendous pressure on the broadband, resulting in delayed response time and becoming a major security risk."
Aeye's LiDAR system (Intelligent Detection and Ranging) mimics the human visual cortex and brings higher resolution to key objects. The system is not limited to a fixed laser scanning mode. Dussan said, “Humans don’t pay equal attention to everything. Our visual cortex means we can quickly assess, prioritize and focus on relevant content. LiDAR technology can also dynamically track targets and objects of interest, while always being strict Assessing the surrounding environment. The saved bandwidth and the resulting increase in security mean that his company wants to drive safety and launch a commercial autonomous vehicle with safety devices in a timely manner.
The importance of LiDAR in the development of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) and autonomous driving technology is self-evident, and original equipment manufacturers and suppliers have made significant investments in professional LiDAR vendors. Including the aforementioned Toyota Research Institute (TRI) investment Luminar, Ford Motor and Ford invested in Velodyne, GM acquired the start-up company Strobe in Pasadena, and Osram acquired 25.1% of Leddartech ZF acquired a 40% stake in the Ibeo car system based in Hamburg, Germany.
LiDAR is a material scienceThe 2018 Audi A8 was unveiled in Barcelona in 2017, and LiDAR was the first auto-driving model to offer SAEL Level 3, which attracted much attention. Valeo is the LiDAR supplier and the first company to make the LiDAR system truly on the road. Since then, discussions have begun around how suppliers can lower prices. But what is the acceptable cost? According to reports, the unit price of Continental and ZF does not exceed several hundred dollars.
The potential for LiDAR cost reduction is a topic on CES 2018. TriLumina, a startup from the United States (invested in DENSO USA, Denso), said that the use of MEMS micromirror technology means a cheaper laser array, and the overall system cost can be reduced to $200. At the same time, solid-state LiDAR developer Quanergy claims that if production increases, there will be ways to reduce the system to $100. Located in California, Quanergy uses smaller sensors and a technology called Optical Phased Array (OPA) to make easier integration and lower cost possible.
Laux believes that acceptable costs can be achieved. He said, “LiDAR is a material science, so I expect that with the rise of manufacturing suppliers, pricing will fall substantially in the next five to seven years. Even with 5 There have been improvements compared to the previous year. At some point, the cost of components will be around $4 to $5,000, which is not the case now."
Eichenholz concludes that the industry must be cautious. “Many people pursue low cost and don’t know what the trade-offs are. In terms of basic technology, LiDAR technology has barely been innovated in 10 years, and the cost has dropped at the expense of performance. cost."
As the LiDAR industry moves into autonomous driving, failures become less and less. Vicious competition in terms of price may lead to a system that is a concern for autonomous vehicles and cannot meet actual needs.
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