TetraVue Raises $10M for Automotive LiDAR

MarketWired: South California-based TetraVue closes its Series A funding at $10M, led by Robert Bosch Venture Capital and Nautilus Venture Partners, and joined by Samsung Catalyst Fund as well as Foxconn. The funding will enable TetraVue to bring its Ultra High Definition, Solid State Flash LIDAR to the autonomous car industry, and to be the leader in Vision for Things (VfT).

"TetraVue is unparalleled to any other existing technologies in the three-dimensional Flash LIDAR space," said Luis Llovera, Managing Director of Robert Bosch Venture Capital. "We see its technology as being key to the enhancement and development of the autonomous car industry, which will be the future of transportation as we know it."

TetraVue’s core technology differentiation is their patented “light slicer” technology, which uses time and distance measurements in order to find optical intensities using standard CMOS sensors. The company’s approach yields many benefits including higher reliability to meet automotive requirements, low latency, and ability to produce ultra-high resolution images for a wider range of distances at a lower cost.

TetraVue’s technology results in 2 million or more simultaneous distance measurements of ranges—greater than 200 meters in any weather conditions and utilizes orders of magnitude less power than competitors. This performance is optimal for the autonomous car industry, and TetraVue plans to miniaturize and commercialize its fully functioning prototype.

Picture of car hitting wall of cardboard boxes taken with Tetravue LIDAR

One of the recent TetraVue's patent applications, US20150296201 "Systems and method of high resolution three-dimensional imaging" by Paul S. Banks, explains TetraVue LiDAR operation: