Koito Manufacturing and Quanergy Systems have partnered to create an automotive headlight with built-in Quanergy S3 solid state LiDAR sensors.
Back in January, at CES 2017, Koito Manufacturing and Quanergy Systems announced a partnership to develop a new LiDAR application. Quanergy had announced the production’s start of its low-cost solid-state LiDAR solution, a small LiDAR sensor that that caught Koito’s attention.
Founded in 1970, Koito Manufacturing is a manufacturer of automotive, aircraft and ship lighting and other equipments. The company designed a concept with Quanergy to fit two S3 LiDAR sensors to a car’s headlights. With two sensors inside each headlight scanning forward and to the sides, real-time long-range 3D maps are easily reproduced, and objects recognized and tracked. There’s no change to the car’s aesthetic, and the headlights protect the sensors against dust, dirt and water, and lens washers help keeping a clear view.
Quanergy CEO Dr. Louay Eldada said: “We believe that headlights with integrated LiDAR sensors will help accelerate the commercialization of cars with autonomous driving capability and will help reinvent the driving experience.”
These sensors do help with autonomous driving capabilities because they will work as primary sensors in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and also autonomous vehicle systems (AV). Although we’re not sure about how much a car with this technology equipped will cost, it is one of the cheapest solutions to date for autonomous cars, as Quanergy aims at a 250$ price for the S3 sensors.
