LiDAR News: Tetravue, Diabotics

IEEE Spectrum publishes an article "TetraVue Says Its Lidar Will Dominate the Robocar Business." The reason for domination is said to be the high spatial resolution - 2MP in the current Tetravue design:

“We put an optical encoder between the lens and the image sensor, and it puts a time stamp on photons as they come in, so we can extract range information,” says Hal Zarem, chief executive of TetraVue.

That optical method has the advantage of scalability, which is why TetraVue’s system boasts 2 megapixels. And because the 100-nanosecond-long flashes repeat at a rate of 30 hertz, the lidar provides 60 million bits of data per second. That’s high-definition, full motion video.

“Because you get standard video as well as lidar for each pixel, you don’t have to figure which object the photon came from—it’s inherently fused in the camera,” says Zarem.

No other lidars will be needed, he adds. Translation: Say goodbye to all the other lidar companies you’ve heard about—Velodyne, for example. As for the other sensors, well, radars will survive, as will a few cameras to fill secondary roles such as showing what’s behind the car when you back up."

Tetravue official PR is here. The Tetravue LiDAR operation is explained here. TrafficTechnologyToday publishes a couple of Tetravue slides:

BusinessWire: Diabotics ports its LiDAR image processing software to Renesas R-Car platform:

"LiDAR processing today requires an efficient processing platform and advanced embedded software. By combining Renesas’ high-performance image processing, low-power automotive R-Car system-on-chip (SoC) with Dibotics’ 3D simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology, the companies deliver a SLAM on Chip™ (Note 1). The SLAM on Chip implements 3D SLAM processing on a SoC, a function that used to require a high-performance PC. It also realizes 3D mapping with LiDAR data only, eliminating the need to use inertial measurement units (IMUs) and global positioning system (GPS) data. The collaboration enables a real-time 3D mapping system with low power consumption and high-level functional safety in automotive systems.

Unlike existing approaches, Dibotics’ Augmented LiDAR™ software realizes 3D SLAM technology that only requires data from the LiDAR sensor to achieve 3D mapping. It does not require additional input from IMUs, GPS, or wheel encoders, which eliminates extra integration efforts, lowers bill-of-material (BOM) costs and simplifies development. In addition, the software realizes point-wise classification (Note 3), detection and tracking of shape, speed, and trajectory of moving objects, and Multi-LiDAR fusion."

Meanwhile, Velodyne publishes a visionary article "Six Gifts LiDAR Can Give to the World" mostly prizing the company products. And Panasonic presents a self-driving LiDAR-powered fridge, as shown in Tech Insider video: