Yesterday at CES, Quanergy, an automotive startup based in Sunnyvale, Calif., held a press conference to announce the S3, a solid-state LIDAR system designed primarily to bring versatile, comprehensive, and affordable sensing to autonomous cars. The S3 is small, has no moving parts, and in production volume will be US $250 or less.
The Laser Focus World take:
When incorporated into autos, this lidar device -- or future versions of it -- will surely end up saving the lives of at least a few pedestrians. It is the fact that Quanergy has been able to make a device with no moving parts (using a phased array for beam-steering) that makes me confident that lidar devices like this will become much smaller and cheaper even than this, and will get there soon. These devices will be everywhere, perhaps also taking the place of security cameras in some instances.
Related: Lidar nears ubiquity as miniature systems proliferate
Related: Lidar advances drive success of autonomous vehicles
When incorporated into autos, this lidar device -- or future versions of it -- will surely end up saving the lives of at least a few pedestrians. It is the fact that Quanergy has been able to make a device with no moving parts (using a phased array for beam-steering) that makes me confident that lidar devices like this will become much smaller and cheaper even than this, and will get there soon. These devices will be everywhere, perhaps also taking the place of security cameras in some instances.
Related: Lidar nears ubiquity as miniature systems proliferate
Related: Lidar advances drive success of autonomous vehicles