Aeva have secured quite a lot of collaborations with automakers and tier-1 suppliers including Plus Trucks (photo); Audi; Denso, and ZF. Now, they’re announcing that their first Aeries II 4D lidar sensors have been produced and shipped to strategic customers, marking a major milestone on the company’s path toward mass production.
Aeries II is based on a lidar-on-chip technology which eliminates all internal optical connections (e.g., fibres) and places all key components—transmitters; optics, and receivers— onto one silicon photonics chip. This architectural simplification allows to integrate the lidar in a more compact module. By consequence, the whole manufacturing process has been entirely automated, bringing better reliability during the production cycle. This technical solution allows Aeva to price their products lower, with the goal to rapidly meet automakers’ needs within their cost constraints.
Aeries II integrates FMCW principles to measure the relative velocity (doppler effect) of each reflected point with an accuracy of a few centimetres per second, in addition to a precise 3D position. The sensor delivers four million raw points per second, a maximum field of view of 120°h × 30°V, and a maximum detection range of up to 500 metres. It is 75 per cent smaller than the previous generation, while achieving the strict environmental and operational standards required by automakers and industrial customers.
Aeries II is based on a Lidar-on-chip technology which eliminates all internal optical connexions (ex: fibres) and places all key components (transmitters, optics, and receivers) onto a same silicon photonics chip. This architectural simplification allows to integrate the lidar in a more compact module. By consequence all the manufacturing process has been entirely automated offering at term the advantage of a better reliability during production cycle. This technical solution allows Aeva to deploy its products at lower costs, with the goal to meet more rapidly the needs of automotive OEMs.
Aeries II integrates FMCW principles to measure the relative velocity (doppler effect) of each reflected point with an accuracy of a few centimetres per second, in addition to a precise 3D position. The sensor delivers four million raw points per second, a maximum field of view of 120 degrees by 30 degrees, and a maximum detection range of up to 500 meters. Its compact design is 75% smaller than the previous generation while achieving the strict environmental and operational standards expected by OEMs and industrial customers.
DVN comment
FMCW principles allow lidar systems to reach the same performance as radars in terms of relative speed measurements. This capability is known to accelerate clustering of reflecting points, in road scenarios where standard TOF lidars could aggregate, in a first step, the reflecting points associated with different objects. As a positive consequence, this 4th dimension (Doppler) gives a shorter response time to recognise separate objects. An open question is the status of the industrialisation: is it a prototype…? A product in pilot manufacturing…? Or is it really in volume mass production? We’re watching to see.