Our team recently returned from another year at CES in Las Vegas. Similar to last year's show, we came back inspired by the innovative technology and advancements in the consumer technology space. We saw vast uses and applications for machine intelligence, AI, robotics and cameras galore! Remember the old carnival game of guess your age or weight? They have cameras for that now! There were tools that did 3D mappings of people on large stages, utilizing lasers. Attendees wandering the show floor had age range determined by a camera and got to explore the latest advancements in recognition software.

Eyal Levi leads the development of night vision systems for improved driver safety and is working on enhanced vision for both driver-operated and levels 4 and 5 autonomous vehicles for major automobile manufacturers. Today, he shares his perspective on lidar and night vision technologies and the challenges and promise of laser systems for automotive lidar.

At CES 2018 in Las Vegas this January, Lasertel’s Robert Walker met with lidar customers and previewed major automotive customers’ exhibitions. This year, autonomous vehicles from manufacturers such as Hyundai, Ford, and Mercedes, were at the forefront of the tradeshow floor. Here are their impressions. 

Dr. Prabhu Thiagarajan, Lasertel’s VP of Engineering, is working with some of the leading automotive companies and system integrators in the market to bring the driverless vehicle to widespread adoption.

Last month, Lasertel’s Key Account Manager for Automotive Lidar attended the Automated Vehicles Symposium in San Francisco, led by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the Transportation Research Board, part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEMTRB).

Why lidar?

Radar and lidar are two technologies that appear in current driver-assistance hardware. Autonomous driver assistance systems increase a driver’s awareness of surrounding factors that present safety risks. Both work on the principle of measuring the “time-of-flight” of an electromagnetic wave from the moment it leaves the source to the moment the wave is detected by the sensor, after having reflected from any objects in the foreground.

Tucson, AZ — Lasertel, a Leonardo company and leading U.S. supplier of custom laser diodes, is proud to announce the release of two new direct diode laser illuminators. The laser products are engineered for short and long range lidar (light imaging, detection, and ranging) systems for self-driving cars.

This past month, thousands of attendees converged at AUVSI XPONENTIAL, the prominent unmanned vehicle conference and exhibit. Lasertel’s Jean Michel Maillard presented a technical talk, Increasing Field of View and Reducing Cost for Laser Sources for Lidar, and met with system integrators in both automotive and UAV to better understand emerging demands for laser systems.

Lasertel will have the opportunity to present at this year’s AUVSI XPONENTIAL in Dallas, Texas May 8-11. The presentation is titled, “Increasing performance and reducing costs for laser sources in lidar.”