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

  • Radar effective as detection tool for hard shoulder running
    July 23, 2012
    Navtech Radar's millimetric-wave systems are being researched on the M42 in England to look into how this type of detector can assist in the opening of the hard shoulder as an additional running lane. Here, the company's Stephen Clark talks about the technology being used. In England, the Highways Agency's (the HA, an executive agency of the Department for Transport) Managed Motorways system - formerly called Active Traffic Management - uses electronic signs and signals mounted on gantries to direct drivers
  • Automatic signal control to prevent emergency vehicle collisions?
    March 14, 2012
    Field trials under way in Arizona promise eradication of accidents between emergency vehicles at intersections – as part of a national focus on ‘intelligent signal’ infrastructure. Collisions between police cars, ambulances and fire crews as they reach intersections at the same time, with equal priority given by all signals set on red, are as serious as they sound absurd. For emergency teams and those in need of their help, the consequences are dire. The solution could come from application of connected veh
  • Asking drivers what information they need: radical but effective
    March 19, 2014
    When Texas A&M Transportation Institute was asked to devise a temporary traveller information system for work zones, it started by asking drivers what they need. Robert Brydia explains the thinking, implementation and results. US Interstate 35 (I-35) runs roughly north–south originating in Laredo, Texas and ends 1,500 miles away in Duluth, Minnesota having passed through Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. Within Texas the I-35 splits into I-35E and I-35W passing through Dallas and Fort Worth respectiv
  • China’s Smart Cities initiative chooses Econolite ITS solutions
    May 3, 2013
    Econolite’s intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are to be implemented in China’s Smart Cities urbanisation project to enhance roadway efficiencies and safety. The Smart Cities urbanisation project is part of the country’s recently announced infrastructure-based stimulus package estimated at US$6.4 trillion, ten times larger than China’s 2008 stimulus package. The company’s ITS solutions will first address the growing traffic congestion in the Panyu District of Guangzhou, where Econolite and regional pa