HELLA, one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers for lighting and electronics, and AEye, a world leader in artificial perception systems and the developer of iDAR, seek to extend their strategic partnership to deliver customised sensing and perception solutions for ADAS and Automated Driving (AD) based on AEye‘s iDAR technology. Both parties will combine their complementary know-how and capabilities in their respective domains.

AEye‘s iDAR artificial perception system leads the industry in range and scan rate performance for automotive-grade LiDAR. iDAR is a new form of intelligent data collection that fuses 1550 nanometre, solid-state agile LiDAR with a low-light HD camera and embedded AI to intelligently capture data at the sensor level. This joint development effort will bring best-in-class Level 3 ADAS solutions to global automotive OEMs. AEye and HELLA have been demonstrating the first results of their existing cooperation at CES 2019 in Las Vegas.

“Hella is an ideal strategic partner for AEye as we look to ramp production capabilities to meet the demand of our OEM partners,” said Blair LaCorte, president of AEye. “Hella has an excellent track record working with automotive OEMs, and I anticipate great synergies as we look to roll out next generation perception capabilities that meet their needs both today, and in the future.”

Frank Petznick, responsible for Automated Driving at Hella, says Hella is actively promoting the trend towards AD.

“The collaboration with AEye will provide us with additional opportunities to catalyse new functionality for ADAS and AD solutions that will redefine performance.”

In December, Hella Ventures became a major shareholder of AEye as part of its $40M Series B round of financing. The first joint development project will start immediately, with the objective of a SOP in 2022.