Aeva’s FMCW 4D Lidar Now on NVIDIA DRIVE AV Platform
March 9, 2022
Aeva, which develops sensing and perception systems, has announced that its Aeries 4D lidar sensors are now supported on the NVIDIA DRIVE autonomous vehicle platform. The company’s Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) 4D lidar sensors detect 3D position and instant velocity for each point at distances up to 500 meters, adding an additional dimension to sensing and perception for autonomous driving platforms.
NVIDIA’s DRIVE is an open, end-to-end platform that lets developers train, test and validate safe self-driving technology at scale.
“Bringing Aeva’s next generation 4D lidar to the NVIDIA DRIVE platform is a leap forward for OEMs building the next generation of Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous vehicles,” said Soroush Salehian, co-founder and CEO at Aeva. “We believe Aeva’s sensors deliver superior capabilities that allow for autonomy in a broader operational design domain, and our unique features like Ultra Resolution surpass the sensing and perception capabilities of legacy sensors to help accelerate the realization of safe autonomous driving.”
In addition to instant velocity detection, Aeva said its sensors have advanced 4D perception capabilities that deliver features not possible with typical legacy lidar sensors, including Ultra Resolution and 4D Localization. The company’s FMCW technology also aids developers of AVs with advantages over legacy lidar sensors that use time-of-flight technology, including:
- Freedom from interference from sunlight and other lidar sensors;
- The elimination of retroreflector blooming and ghosting from highly reflective objects, such as street signs and roadway markings;
- A greater ability to see through airborne particles, such as dust, fog, rain and snow.
“Aeva delivers a unique advantage for perception in automated vehicles because it leverages per-point instant velocity information to detect and classify objects with higher confidence across longer ranges,” said Gary Hicok, vice president of engineering at NVIDIA. “With Aeva as part of our DRIVE ecosystem network, we can provide customers access to this next generation of sensing capabilities for safe autonomous driving.”
For more details on the Aeva lidar systems, visit its website here.
