Skip to main content

AID teams up with Luminar for advanced LiDAR sensing technology

AID-Autonomous Intelligent Driving, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Audi, is partnering with Luminar Technologies to deploy LiDAR products. Launched in March last year, AID has an autonomous vehicle (AV) test fleet in Munich and bills itself as the ‘centre of excellence’ for urban autonomous driving in the Volkswagen Group. Luminar LiDARs will be installed on the roof of the AVs to give a 360-degree field of view. “Perception remains a bottleneck today for autonomous mobility and we quickly worked to
December 21, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

AID-Autonomous Intelligent Driving, a wholly-owned subsidiary of 2125 Audi, is partnering with Luminar Technologies to deploy LiDAR products.

Launched in March last year, AID has an autonomous vehicle (AV) test fleet in %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external Munich false https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLGFB8hcpHU&amp;feature=youtu.be false false%> and bills itself as the ‘centre of excellence’ for urban autonomous driving in the 994 Volkswagen Group.

Luminar LiDARs will be installed on the roof of the AVs to give a 360-degree field of view.

“Perception remains a bottleneck today for autonomous mobility and we quickly worked to find the most powerful sensors to make the perception task easier,” says AID chief technology officer Alexandre Haag. “That's where Luminar comes in - the technology is clearly above the pack in terms of range and density, which is important for solving the most challenging problems in autonomy.”

LiDAR´s 3D mapping technology has become instrumental in enabling AVs to measure the distance of objects and ‘see’ the world in front of them, the company says.

“Including Luminar Technologies in our partnership programme brings us one step closer to

achieving our mission to drive fully autonomously by 2021 in urban areas,” Haag adds.

Related Content

  • November 2, 2018
    Waymo gets California green light for public driverless tests
    Waymo has been granted a licence to test fully-driverless cars on public roads in California. It is the first company to be given the green light for such trials in the state – and it means there will be no test driver sitting in the driver’s seat. The permit includes day and night testing on city streets, rural roads and highways with speed limits of up to 65mph. Waymo insists: “Our vehicles can safely handle fog and light rain, and testing in those conditions is included in our permit. We will gradual
  • October 16, 2019
    Dyson scraps EV project
    British technology company Dyson has pulled out of a project to build electric vehicles (EVs), saying it is unable to make its car “commercially viable”. Chief executive Sir James Dyson said in a statement: “We have been through a serious process to find a buyer for the project which has, unfortunately, been unsuccessful so far.” The company, known primarily for its vacuum cleaners, says it will continue its £2.5 billion investment programme into new technology in two UK locations and in Singapore. It wil
  • October 23, 2018
    Addison Lee and Oxbotica to implement AV services in London by 2021
    Addison Lee has partnered with self-driving vehicle software company Oxbotica in a bid to bring autonomous ride-sharing services to London by 2021. Addison Lee, a UK private taxi hire firm, says it will also explore opportunities to provide corporate shuttles, airport and campus-based services. Andy Boland, CEO of Addison Lee, says: “By providing ride-sharing services, we can help address congestion, free space used for parking and improve urban air quality through zero-emission vehicles.” The partners
  • March 22, 2018
    Nokia’s roadside cloud adds flexibility
    Networking communications equipment vendor Nokia is looking to edge computing to solve road operators’ problems, bringing legacy networks together under its ‘roadside cloud’ concept. “We don’t want road operators to get rid of their existing infrastructure,” explains Matthias Jablonowski, global practice lead – road at Nokia. But it believes connecting roadside infrastructure with a central management system via its roadside cloud – based on the multi-access edge computing (MEC) standard – will allow