Marc Vrecko, graduate of the INSA Lyon Engineering school, started his career at Saint Gobain in France in 1990, serving in various plant management positions, before moving to Asia where he stayed for close to 15 years.
In 2008, he moved back to France to take charge of the Saint Gobain Abrasives business, in addition to serving as Vice-President, Thin Wheels/Construction Products Worldwide.
He joined Valeo in 2011 as President of the Comfort and Driving Assistance Systems Business Group,.
“On a more personal side, I must admit I am rather busy, so my priority is to take care of my family, with 3 boys full of energy and projects. I enjoy tennis, golf, reading and international travel.”
DVN: Tell us about your BG. What are the facts and figures, the prominent activities? What makes your BG unique?
Marc Vrecko: CDA has been the first organization in T1 industry putting under the same roof the automated and connected activities. Back in 2011, it wasn’t as obvious as it is today, where we see an incredible level of product synergies between our ADAS and Interior Experience/ Connectivity activities. CDA is a €4 billion revenues organization with close to 30.000 associates worldwide, with 28 manufacturing locations and 17 R&D sites. We are enjoying an exceptional commercial momentum thanks to our unique positioning, and we expect to more than double our revenues in the next 5 years, which is rather unique in the industry. For instance we have produced since early 90s around 1.5 Bio ADAS sensors… we will produce as many in the 5 years to come, which is a sign of exponential growth.
Questions on ADAS – Valeo competitive position
DVN: In the European market, Valeo is seen today as the clear leader for automotive lidar sensors. How do you see your position in Asian and NA markets? What are your top 3-5 competitors?
Marc Vrecko: Thanks to Valeo’s 360-degree lidar cocoon, composed of 5 SCALA sensors and a central computing unit, Honda was able to achieve in Japan the first ever lv3 passenger vehicle in the world, for this achievement Valeo received a supplier award from Honda early in 2022, which is rather rare for non-Japanese suppliers.
Mercedes has received type approval for its Drive Pilot system in Europe and Valeo has contributed significantly with our 2nd generation SCALA as well as system/software to achieve this certification. Other markets will follow. We will soon launch with an Asia-based global manufacturer, and you’ve surely followed our announcement on the global business win for our 3rd generation lidar with Stellantis.
About competition, there are many new lidar companies which have achieved important valuation levels but so far, apart from some Chinese players, none of them has ever delivered a lidar for a passenger vehicle.
We are used not to name our competitors… but if we would, we would answer Luminar, Innoviz & Cepton. Also, Hesai & Robosense if we include Chinese
DVN: You have Radars, Vision, Ultrasonics and Lidars in your portfolio. In terms of market, what is the current situation of these Valeo’s sensors?
Marc Vrecko: With almost 200,000 sensors in the market, we’re the leader in Lidar, with the Valeo SCALA® equipping the two first & only OEMs in the world to be certified at SAE Level 3 of autonomy. We also just signed a key contract with Stellantis for our 3rd generation SCALA®.
Ultrasonic Systems: we’re the market leader for with more than 45% market share.
In Surround Cameras we just celebrated our one hundred millionth camera (100,000,000) produced at our Irish site, at Tuam (in April 2022). In Front Cameras we are the largest partner for Mobileye who leads the market and therefore are also becoming the leading Tier 1 in this segment.
Plus, we have strong ambitions in Radar with two recent awards for a complete ADAS system using our front camera and up to 5 Valeo radar sensors.
Following our strong expertise in control units for sensor fusion, we just got an award for the next generation of ADAS Domain Controllers from BMW, and we also provide perception stacks for all our sensors and cameras, offer state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms for surround cameras.
We are the recognized leader in parking and low-speed maneuvering and offer safety and assisted driving functions for our smart front camera systems.
Questions on Lidar – Technology
DVN: How do you see the market evolution of solid-state vs mechanical lidars in the next years?
Marc Vrecko: First I’d like to clarify the difference between mechanical lidar in which sender & receiver elements are in the rotor, and rotating mirror lidar in which only the mirror rotates leading to a very robust design, proven by Valeo with nearly 200.000 lidars on the road. The advantage of a spinning lidar is that it can provide a long detection range combined with a large field of view and a high resolution.
Solid state technology such as flash lidar is very well suited for short range, but not for long range. To achieve a long detection range, it can only provide a narrow field of view, essentially requiring several sensors to cover a wide coverage area.
DVN: Up to now automotive lidar is mainly using ToF (Time of Flight) technology. Some companies state that Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) will be the winning technology for the future. What do you think?
Marc Vrecko: FMCW is a promising technology, and we are very familiar with it from our expertise in radar, which we can leverage in for our lidar developments. We expect this technology to be mature enough for an automotive SOP by 2026 at the earliest, more likely later.
DVN: Do you see the next generations of Lidar capable of robust performance in bad weather conditions?
Marc Vrecko: Yes, robustness in bad weather is at the core of our technical choices for SCALA gen 3. The usage of 905 nm wavelength which is very robust to water absorption combined with higher resolution and utilizing several echoes per point allows SCALA gen 3 to achieve very good performance on adverse weather conditions.
DVN: Concerning short range corner lidars, do you have investigations or developments on such technology and particularly on its integration in headlamps?
Marc Vrecko: Yes, integration of lidar in headlamps or behind windshield is under investigation. However, such integrations come with multiple challenges. Lidar sensors are sensitive to any surface that could alter the optical path. Managing the heat dissipation is another concern. We also must not forget that most headlamps are subject to a facelift after a few years. Having to revalidate the lidar perception would significantly increase the effort for this.
Questions on Lidar – Market & Regulation
DVN: The UNECE has just released a new regulation allowing level 3 automated driving under controlled conditions up to speeds of 130 km/h. What does this mean for the sensor suite? Will it mean that under practical conditions lidar sensors become (quasi) mandatory?
Marc Vrecko: Absolutely. Lidar is quasi-unanimously considered mandatory for level 3 automation and higher. While the SCALA gen 2 is a key enabler for Level 3 Traffic Jam Pilots (up to 60 kph), our SCALA gen 3 is designed to enable Level 3 functionality at high-speed. Thanks to a detection range of up to 300 meter, a vertical resolution of 0.05°, and matching perception algorithms, the sensor is able to reliably determine small debris on the road at high speed.
DVN: For Lidar, volume growth is somehow linked to the Automated Driving market. EU has released the first L3 regulation this year and plans to release a L4, L5 regulation next year. Do you think CN / USA will follow soon?
Marc Vrecko: In the U.S. authorization for Level 3 functions are done on a state level. First systems are expected to launch in California, Nevada, and Florida within the next 6-12 months. In China, regulations for Level 3 and 4 are expected for 2023. Several provinces already licensed vehicle testing.
DVN: Lidar’s volume growth can be also linked to the UN regulation that requires the deployment of AEBS from 0-60 km/h. Some AEB scenarios like pedestrian detection in urban conditions could take advantage of the use of short-range solid state lidars. These sensors have a much better resolution than existing corner radars. Do you think that it could be also a good trigger for Lidar’s deployments and consequently for a drastic cost reduction?
Marc Vrecko: We are fully committed to eliminating road fatalities and road accidents ultimately and are closely monitoring developments in this regard. The cost of lidar sensors will come down as volumes continue to grow. However, a lidar sensor will remain more expensive compared to camera and radar for the foreseeable future, which of course also continue to improve. We don’t see lidar to replace other sensing technologies – at least not on a broad scale – but rather complementing them to advance performance and reliability of the overall function.