China-based LiDAR company Hesai Technology will expand its software effort in Chongqing, one of the automotive production hubs in the country. The company plans to establish a global software R&D center in the city, setting up an industrial park dedicated to LiDAR technologies.
China's Baidu recently announced the AI product "ERNIE Bot," which uses the second generation of Kunlun AI chip in its model. Besides focusing on AI chip development, Baidu is also focusing on applying Kunlun chips to autonomous driving. Recently, Chinese automaker BYD has invested in Kunlun to expand its planning for high-end autonomous vehicles (AV).
LiDAR, a light sensing technology that creates a 3D map of a car's surroundings, is used in partial automation as a short-term objective, and is set to help achieve fully autonomous vehicles on a long-term horizon. LiDAR can be divided into different categories: mechanical, hybrid solid-state, optical phase array (OPA), and flash LiDAR. The well-known players include Velodyne, InnovizOne, Quanergy, and Leddartech.
German automaker Mercedes-Benz has won against Tesla to be authorized by the US to activate SAE Level-3 conditional autonomous driving on public freeway in the state of Nevada, although the regulation still requires a safety driver behind the wheel.
China's National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) started their respective annual meetings during the weekend. Local automotive leaders like He Xiaopeng and Li Shufu provided their advice to the government before the sessions began, hoping to scale up the country's autonomous driving and pickup truck markets.
With the rise of self-driving vehicles, the demand for in-vehicle sensors is booming. Take Afeela, a car brand launched by a joint venture between Sony and Honda, as an example. It uses a total of 45 lenses and sensors inside and outside the prototype car, and a lidar is also installed on the roof.
Months after withdrawing its support for Argo AI, Ford has found another way to continue efforts in autonomous driving. It announced on March 2 the establishment of Latitude AI, a wholly-owned subsidiary. The new company will initially focus on developing a hands-free, eyes-off-the-road automated driving system.
As cars become more intelligent, ensuring better vision has been the priority, especially at night. US-based Owl Autonomous Imaging integrates thermal images with artificial intelligence to do object detection, classification and ranging for a vehicle. The company launched its first commercial product in early January.
Rumors of Tesla re-embracing mmWave radars for its EVs has garnered global attention, but according to industry sources the chances are not high for the EV giant to adopt 4D imaging radars from leading supplier Arbe Robotics, despite market speculations about their possible cooperation.
Baidu announced that it is integrating its AIGC service Ernie Bot across Baidu's operations to enhance user experience. There are also plans for Ernie Bot to be integrated into Apollo Smart Cabin and Xiaodu's smart devices and services, the company said at the latest earnings call on Feb 22.
MEMS-based sensing solution supplier Aceinna is bringing its high-precision positioning sensor system INS401 to the automotive market, noting that its goal is to reduce the costs of integrating high-precision sensors in automobiles for carmakers.
Vehicles with connectivity and autonomous driving capability will require much higher computing performance and low latency. Industry source said up-to-date autonomous driving solutions generally need more than 1,000 TOPS computing power, which brings in the challenges of heat dissipation and real-time processing for chipmakers building the architecture for carmakers.
Samsung Electronics announced that it would manufacture automotive AI chips for US-based Ambarella, a move for Samsung's foundry business to diversify away from maturing handset sector and into the emerging advanced automotive chips.
French automotive supplier Valeo and German automaker BMW strengthened their partnership by adding another item to the shared work list. The duo said on February 14 that they will jointly develop automated parking technologies to meet up to level 4 autonomous driving standards.
As assisted driving continues to gain ground in China, HikVision-owned WHST is looking to raise more capital to capitalize on the emerging opportunity.
