The 3rd virtual DVN Lidar conference took place on November 17th with 14 exhibitors and 200 participants representing the global ADAS community involving the US, Canada, Europe, Israel, South-Korea, Japan and China.
A key note by Dr.Gunnar Juergens, VP Head of LiDAR segment, Continental Advanced LiDAR Solutions LLC elaborated on vehicle implementation with the title : “ LiDAR technology is entering the automotive mainstream”. As a general goal, he put forward that Lidar technology should contribute to the overall stretched target of ”Zero Traffic Death”. During his talk, Dr. Juergens made a clear differentiation between use case for Lidar. Flash Lidar will be the solution for shorter distances, Scanning will be needed for long range lidar. If you want to achieve an extremely long range, the switch from system wavelength 905 nm to 1550 nm may be necessary.
Another highlight during the conference was the second key note given by Dr. Mircea Gradu , SVP Velodyne Lidar, SAE international 2018 President, Fisitia Council. He explained insights on the theme: “Pedestrian Safety Focussed Highly Innovative ADAS Perception Solutions and Validation Aspects “
In his presentation, Dr. Gradu gave a thorough explanation and analysis of data about pedestrian and bicycle accidents in the US. This gave an impulse to Dr. Gradu for putting a very strong focus on night time accidents. At lighting levels below 1 lux , the number of “dark level” accidents increases significantly. Application of a lidar sensor would significantly help to reduce such accidents.
The consequences and opportunities of Lidar application, among others in combination with lighting were discussed in session #1 by OEMs Volvo, PSA, Audi and Great Wall. Key elements were the best position on Lidar sensors on the car with respective to its general functions, being it short range, medium range or long range. Another overwhelming point was of course the influence of environmental effects on the sensors like rain, dust, mud and others disturbing effects. Therefore, integration in the roof at least for long range sensors can create advantages, if adequate cleaning is installed and would even be required as mandatory.
One of the main enablers for advanced and ever progressing Lidar technology are obviously key hardware components in combination with solid modelling. Both topics were intensively addressed in sessions # 3 & 4 by representatives of companies/institutes Osram, Dioptic, Jenoptik, OQmented, Covestro, Lumentum, Fraunhofer IMS and Ansys.
A lot of continuous and sometimes steep progress is going on in the component area. Progress of laser sources and new optical concepts will lead to improvement of lidar sensors. New MOEMS technology can heavily influence the balance between flash and scanning technologies. Last, but not least, advances in detectors, transparent sensor materials and powerful analysis tools round of the cocktail which component suppliers offer to the lidar manufacturers community.
Two sessions on Lidar technology gathered key representatives of the globally leading lidar companies Valeo, Ibeo, Xenomatix from Europe, Cepton and Ouster from the US, LeddarTech from Canada and Innoviz from Israel. The high-level speaker line-up included CEOs, Presidents, COOs, Head of Global R&D as well as key experts from business development and product management.
Key driver for all these companies is to bring Lidar technology to the market, the sooner, the better under the aspects of real application learning and harvesting initial income. The automotive lidar technology in itself is moving from embryonic to emerging state on the learning curve, but still significant steps on geometrical size and cost reduction have to be done to reach maturity.
Yole Developpement elaborated on their interesting view on LiDAR evolution for ADAS and robotic vehicles. The general conclusion is that until 2025, the number of Lidar systems will remain limited in the low percentage range for passenger cars. Robotic vehicles may show a stronger development, but of course with limited production numbers.
Comments from some participants and exhibitors have arrived. The general tenor gave a positive shade on the high number of high-grade speakers, the quality of presentations and the balanced design of the program. Here some extracts from the comments:
- I liked most that you made it possible to have this event even during COVID-19 time. It is very important for us to stay in contact with the other TIER ones, OEMs and LiDAR manufacturers to know the needs and also having a great possibility for networking.
- My team gave unanimous feedback that the conference was very interesting and engaging and one even said “Thanks even more for registering to this event, it is clearly the one with most LIDAR relevant updates I ever attended”!
- We enjoyed many good quality presentations. Reaching out to other participants on a virtual event continues to be an activity with a too low success rate. So we truly hope you can switch back to the live version next year.
- The mix of recorded sessions and live Q&A were very agile and accurate in sequence, I could shoot my questions and saw them asked minutes ago so I cannot be more pleased on the pure execution.…. Thanks a lot!
- The marketing around the event was great and also the speakers forum was a high level representation.
- Perhaps a bit more attention to the exhibitors? I heard that there were 130 “visitors” to our virtual booth, but we would like to have insight on the visitors to our booth during the event so we know instantly how we do.
- As an exhibitor, I thank you very much for your efforts to get this virtual Lidar conference rolling. I was present the whole time and besides the very good and informative talks, I could make some good contacts and arrange follow-up meetings. I also liked the possibility to be able to contact people from my side.
Although the DVN team considers this 3rd DVN Lidar Virtual Conference under the given circumstances as a relevant success, we also hope like a lot of you for a live event in November 2021. Live speaker contributions, exhibiting and networking has been well simulated by an excellent organisation through the DVN organisation team and their aides, but it is not really a full equivalent for f2f discussions. On the other hand, in these Covid-19 times, it is the best we can do, and organize it to the satisfaction of our Lidar- and lighting community.
The team hopes to meet you next year for the 4th DVN Lidar Conference again in person!!
