Skip to main content

Lidar technology wins big in China’s autonomous vehicle challenge

China’s fifth annual Future Challenge earlier this month pitted eleven unmanned intelligent vehicles against each other on a course designed to test their capabilities in suburban and urban road tests, over a 23-kilometre course. All of the first eight cars to finish were equipped with Velodyne’s 3D Lidar vision technology which provides active sensing for crash avoidance, driving automation and mobile road survey and mapping. Velodyne HDL-64E and HDL-32E sensors deliver 360-degree views of the car’s env
November 26, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
China’s fifth annual Future Challenge earlier this month pitted eleven unmanned intelligent vehicles against each other on a course designed to test their capabilities in suburban and urban road tests, over a 23-kilometre course.

All of the first eight cars to finish were equipped with Velodyne’s 3D Lidar vision technology which provides active sensing for crash avoidance, driving automation and mobile road survey and mapping. Velodyne HDL-64E and HDL-32E sensors deliver 360-degree views of the car’s environment, with real-time updates twenty times per second.

Cars on the course needed to demonstrate the ability to recognise light, eliminate human and vehicle interference, successfully detour around construction zones, turn around and come to a stop. All were also required to establish the ability to make a U-turn, accelerate and decelerate. Performance was graded on safety, smartness, smoothness and speed.

"This is simply a remarkable accomplishment," said Wolfgang Juchmann, PhD, 2259 Velodyne Lidar director of sales and marketing. "The Future Challenge course was nothing less than demanding throughout, with terrain and tests that demonstrated Lidar’s versatility and reliability in real time. And the fact that eight of eleven vehicles were so equipped stands as a huge vote of confidence in our technology."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Five companies shortlisted for Roads of the Future project
    May 29, 2018
    Five companies will present ideas ranging from smart traffic lights to segregated driverless zones in a competition to make UK roads fit or driverless cars. The candidates will receive £30,000 to test ideas, with £50,000 prize available to the winner this autumn. The National Infrastructure Commission shortlisted the companies from 81 entries submitted to The Roads for the Future initiative – led by Highways England and Innovate UK. Aecom is examining how smart signals could advise drivers and vehicles
  • Less travel aggravation to blunt Aggieland fans’ motivation
    June 17, 2016
    Returning travel times to normal within two hours of the end of a major football game was the challenge facing College Station, Adam Lyons explains how this was achieved. College Station, TX, also known as ‘Aggieland’, is located right in the middle of the Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston triangle making the city accessible to over 14 million Texans within less than a four-hour drive. One of the biggest draws to this area is Texas A&M University (TAMU) and the Aggie football games in the fall, mea
  • ITS America 2016 demos feature V2I technology, truck cruise control, ADAS and more
    June 3, 2016
    ITS America 2016 San Jose, a new show representing this transformative moment in intelligent transportation, is centred on the theme “Integrated Mobility. Transportation Redefined.” Some of the intelligent systems redefining transportation will be on display – running, operating, waiting for close-up inspection and hands-on participation as part of “#THISisITS Exhibits and Demonstrations,” Monday, June 13, through Wednesday, June 15. For full information and registration options, visit www.itsamerica2016.or
  • A global standard for enforcement systems – is it necessary?
    May 30, 2013
    Jason Barnes speaks to leading figures from the automated enforcement sector about whether a truly international standard for automated enforcement systems is necessary or can ever be achieved. Recent reports of further press controversy in the US over automated enforcement (see ‘Focusing on accuracy?’, ITS International raise again the issue of standards and what constitutes ‘good enough’ in terms of system accuracy and overall solution effectiveness. Comparatively, automated enforcement has always expe