Lasers & Sources

Lidar maker Princeton Lightwave acquired by Ford's Argo AI unit

Oct. 27, 2017

Princeton Lightwave’s Giger-mode lidar already serves the commercial mapping and defense industries.

Content Dam Lfw En Articles 2017 10 Lidar Maker Princeton Lightwave Acquired By Ford S Argo Ai Unit Leftcolumn Article Thumbnailimage File

Ford Motor Company's Argo AI (Pittsburgh, PA), which develops software for self-driving vehicles, is buying Princeton Lightwave (Cranbury, NJ), a company with extensive experience in the development and commercialization of lidar sensors. Terms of the deal were not announced.

Princeton Lightwave’s Giger-mode lidar already serves the commercial mapping and defense industries, and Argo says the acquisition will help it extend the range and resolution needed to achieve self-driving capability in urban environments. Princeton Lightwave’s technology complements and expands the capability of lidar sensors already available to the automotive industry today.

On the Argo company blog, Bryan Salesky, CEO, wrote, “Our expanded team remains focused on accelerating the development of a virtual driver system that’s mandated for SAE levels four and five autonomous driving — meaning there’s no driver behind the wheel. By collaborating with our in-house hardware and software developers, as well as our supply base, we will work to create LiDAR sensors that not only meet the demanding performance required for high volume production, but also are affordable.”

Related article: Lidar nears ubiquity as miniature systems proliferate, by LFW Senior Editor Gail Overton

Related article: After the Tesla accident, an argument for lidar, by Strategies Unlimited analyst Allen Nogee

Related article: Lasers for Lidar: Application parameters dictate laser source selection in lidar systems,by LFW Senior Editor Gail Overton

Related article: Photonics entrepreneurship meets demand for autonomous vehicle lidar, Milton Chang interviews Jason Eichenholz of Luminar Technologies

Ford acquired control of Argo in February and is investing $1 billion in the company over five years. In 2016, Ford invested $75 million in Velodyne, a well-known lidar maker with sensor technology some consider still too expensive. Earlier this month, General Motors acquired another lidar maker, Strobe.

Source: Ford

About the Author

Conard Holton | Editor at Large

Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.