Tuesday, October 10, 2017

GM BUYS LIDAR TO SPEED UP AUTONOMOUS CAR DEVELOPMENT














DETROIT – General Motors Co announced it acquired LIDAR technology company Strobe, Inc. As part of the deal, Strobe’s engineering talent joins GM’s Cruise Automation team to define and develop next-generation LIDAR solutions for self-driving vehicles.

“Strobe’s LIDAR technology will significantly improve the cost and capabilities of our vehicles so that we can more quickly accomplish our mission to deploy driverless vehicles at scale,” said Kyle Vogt, Founder and CEO, Cruise Automation.

LIDAR uses light to create high-resolution images that provide a more accurate view of the world than cameras or radar alone. As self-driving technology continues to evolve, LIDAR’s accuracy will play a critical role in its deployment.

“The successful deployment of self-driving vehicles will be highly dependent on the availability of LIDAR sensors,” said Julie Schoenfeld, Founder and CEO, Strobe, Inc. “Strobe’s deep engineering talent and technology backed by numerous patents will play a significant role in helping GM and Cruise bring these vehicles to market sooner than many think.”

Recently Cruise Automation revealed the world’s first mass-producible car designed with the redundancy and safety requirements necessary to operate without a driver. The vehicle will join Cruise’s testing fleets in San Francisco, metropolitan Phoenix and Detroit.  




Cruise Automation introduced its third-gen automated vehicle. The new vehicles will be part of its San Francisco-based test fleet.

The company’s developed a new microchip Lidar system would significantly enhance the capabilities of the self-driving cars GM was developing, Vogt stated to the media. 
Kyle Vogt founder and CEO of Cruise said they are reducing the entire sensor down to a single chip, the system cuts the cost on its self-driving cars by 99%, he said.  The technology provided not just a distance measurement for an object on the road – vehicles, people and objects – but also measured that object’s velocity.

 “Strobe’s LIDAR technology will significantly improve the cost and capabilities of our vehicles so that we can more quickly accomplish our mission to deploy driverless vehicles at scale,” said Vogt.

GM purchased Cruise Automaker for $1 billion last year and then basically turned over the keys to its automated vehicle development to the San Francisco-company. Earlier this year, GM said it planned to spend $600 million in 2017 on self-driving vehicles. That number may apply to 2018 too.

Lidar is what an autonomous vehicle uses to “see” when it’s on the road. It uses light to create high-resolution images that provide a more accurate view of the world than cameras or radar alone. As self-driving technology continues to evolve, Lidar’s accuracy will play a critical role in its deployment.






“The successful deployment of self-driving vehicles will be highly dependent on the availability of Lidar sensors,” said Julie Schoenfeld, founder and CEO, Strobe, Inc. “Strobe’s deep engineering talent and technology backed by numerous patents will play a significant role in helping GM and Cruise bring these vehicles to market sooner than many think.”





Cruise Automation revealed the world’s first mass-producible car designed with the redundancy and safety requirements necessary to operate without a driver. The vehicle will join Cruise’s testing fleets in San Francisco, metropolitan Phoenix and Detroit.

GM’S CFO Chuck Stevens announced it plans to launch its first semi-autonomous system, the Cadillac Super Drive, in the 2018 Cadillac CT6. GM’s first fully self-driving car coming to market will be a version of the electric Chevrolet Bolt EV.

Cruise has recently introduced its third generation of fully autonomous factory-built test vehicles. Kyle Vogt described the third-generation vehicle as “the world’s first mass-producible car designed to operate without a driver. This isn’t just a concept design, it’s assembled in a high-volume assembly plant in Orion Township, Michigan, out of Detroit capable of producing 100,000’s of vehicles per year,” he said.

BRUCE HUBBARD
BONNIE LYNCH
AUTO ADVISOR GROUP

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