Light Labs Inc.: Forward-facing depth perception for ADAS

Light's Clarity depth perception platform enables autonomous vehicles and ADAS to see more and see further than existing sensor offerings.Hitachi Astemo Americas and Light, a provider of depth perception for vehicles, have begun "proof of concept" development of a forward-facing perception system for use with ADAS or advanced driver assistance systems. The two companies will begin to field test the new multi-view, camera-based sensing technology later this month. Light's Clarity systems have better range, detail and accuracy at distance than existing sensor systems and integrate seamlessly into Hitachi Astemo's advanced vehicle assistance systems to work directly with other ADAS and ECU (engine control unit) applications. "Building upon our decades of experience and together with Light, we are looking to create the next generation of leading ADAS and autonomous driving products," said John Nunneley, senior vice president, Design Engineering, Hitachi Astemo Americas, Inc. Clarity is an industry-first multi-view perception platform using cameras and designed to see any 3D structures in the road from 10 centimeters to 1,000 meters away - three times the range and 20x the detail of the best-in-class LiDAR. Clarity outperforms existing sensing systems by seamlessly combining visual information from cameras with measured depth so that longer distances and greater detail can be measured rather than only inferred by machine learning. Benefits include safer automatic emergency braking, evasive steering control for a wider variety of objects, adaptive suspension adjustment for road hazards such as potholes, and smoother adaptive cruise-control and lane-keeping systems. "Light's Clarity platform enables machines to see better than humans," said Dave Grannan, Light's co-founder and CEO. "It sees farther, and with greater detail, than other products available on the market. Aligning on this project with Hitachi Astemo, a company that is constantly seeking to improve and advance their technology, is an outstanding opportunity to prove the capabilities of the range and detail of the Clarity platform." https://light.co Related articles: Orthogonal laser startup raises seed funding Lidar sensor addresses cost, safety, and design challenges AEye, Continental jointly develop long-range lidar Innoviz plans to massively slash costs with 2nd generation of its lidar sensors Lidar sensor generates foto-like environment image