Stellantis Ventures, Stellantis' venture capital fund, has invested in a company developing SteerLight, a new generation high-performance Lidar (light detection and ranging) detection technology, as part of its mission to develop advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Towards autonomous driving, as the company explained at a media event.
„The main trend in ADAS systems and autonomous driving is to create functions for all our vehicles. We have already started this process using the many sensors and cameras that are already in most of our units. Currently, these large-scale sensors have a significant impact on the design of our cars,” said the vice president and senior ADAS expert Vincent Abadi explained.
Abadie pointed out that he found that „the technology proposed by Steerlight advances in this direction” by searching for more compact, profitable and better performing solutions for the future.
In particular, Stellandis uses silicon photonic technology that combines a universal semiconductor material with the speed of light to detect the surrounding environment in three dimensions with high resolution and accuracy at low cost. , than currently available lidar systems.
According to Stellandis, this technology has the potential to provide drivers of future vehicles with better performance in various ADAS systems, including automated driving from the group's brands.
„A central aspect of our Dare Forward 2030 initiatives is identifying innovative technologies that deliver significant value to our customers,” Ned Curig, director of engineering and technology at Stellantis, said in a statement.
In this sense, the manager added that improvements in automated driving continue to be one of the key priorities for the car manufacturing group. „SteerLight's innovative work will enable enhanced and widespread ADAS applications.”
For his part, SteerLight's CEO, François Simoens, noted that his company sees „a big advantage” in the Stellantis venture capital fund, recognizing that its development could „open the large-scale adoption of Lidar for industrial applications.” and motion”.
Silicon Photonic Technology
SteerLight, a subsidiary of French technology center CEA-Leti, in which venture capital funds Lyft and Quanto Natio also participate, uses frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) lidar based on silicon photonic technology, putting the system on a microchip. Its structure is robust (no moving parts) and compact, increasing flexibility for automotive engineers.
The French subsidiary says that the development it is working on overcomes the current challenges of lidar technology for vehicles, particularly the volume of components and their high cost. The FMCW technology they use provides highly accurate depth and speed data while resisting interference from the environment and other users.
„What we were doing in the 80s with electronic functions on silicon chips is now becoming a reality. Imagine having all the photonic and optical functions on silicon chips. This is really the DNA of our solution and we are very happy to be able to move forward with the support of Stellandis,” said Simoens.
Finally, since its venture capital fund, Stellantis Ventures, was created in 2022, Stellantis has invested in 12 new companies and a mobility fund, „focused on the development of cutting-edge technologies that improve user outcomes.” customers and society as a whole.