Due to the high Covid counts, it was a close call if we could hold our conference as a live event or not. Fortunately, we were able to safely go ahead under German 2G regulation. We were very happy to welcome about 150 visitors; it was a real pleasure to meet so many of you in person again, and interact in person rather than over video calls and emails.
Participants experienced 26 presentations, two keynote speeches, and two live panel discussions. We had automakers; tier-1s; lidar specialists; component suppliers; testing and equipment specialists; researchers, and analysts. It was gratifying to see the passion and enthusiasm around the topic of automotive lidar. And we saw the same passion with our 21 exhibitors: each break saw great foot traffic through the booths and for networking, and socialising which was finally(!) possible again.
Although it is impossible to capture this conference in a short DVN editorial, we would like to highlight two takeaway points: lidar is growing and becoming more mature; past conferences centred around the why of lidar in cars, and now it is more about how and when. That’s a major shift. And partnerships, standardisation, and neutral and objective testing seem to be important requirements for a higher and faster market adoption.
See below short summaries of the lectures and click on this link to see corresponding presentation slides in downloadable .pdf format except for a few speakers whose companies objected to their publication.
With best regards from Frankfurt and on behalf of DVN,