SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The head of Intel Corp’s self-driving car subsidiary said Tuesday that the company wants to move towards using its own radar-based technology and using one lidar sensor per vehicle by 2025 in an effort to reduce the cost of autonomous driving.
Mobileye has taken a different strategy from many of their self-driving car competitors, with a custom camera-based system that helps cars with dynamic cruise control and lawn change assistance. These systems are on the road today and are collecting data to help Mobileye map the roads in new cities.
For more advanced systems, the company plans to add both radar sensors, which use radio waves to detect distance from objects, and a lidar, a laser-based system that helps self-driving vehicles to see three side of the road. For a planned fleet of so-called robotaxis, which are commercial vehicles intended to ferry around passengers, the company is tapping sensors from Luminar Technologies Inc.
In a presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show, CEO Amnon Shashua said Tuesday that Mobileye robotaxis will use several Luminar units to get a lidar, radar and 360-degree camera cover around the vehicle. The robotaxis will have four Luminar units deployed in at least eight cities starting in 2022, Shashua said in a subsequent question and answer session.
But Mobileye is also developing its own lidar sensor which they plan to start using in 2025 for consumer-oriented cars.
That 2025 consumer system will feature a single lidar unit in front of the vehicle’s front, while new cameras and a radar-based system that Mobileye is developing will also cover the entire vehicle. Shashua said Mobileye is developing new ways to process radar data with software that makes radar more powerful. Radar sensors are cheaper than lidar but provide a less detailed image.
“The difference between radars and lidars in terms of cost is the order of magnitude,” he said. “No matter what people tell you about how you can reduce the cost of a lidar, radar is ten times lower. We’re building lidars, so I know exactly how much the lidars cost. ”
In a statement, Mobileye said it plans to continue using Luminar lidars “as much as possible” after introducing their own lidar sensors. Mobileye plans to offer their self-driving technology to manufacturers as separate components, meaning Mobileye system manufacturers could choose to use only Luminar sensors for the lidar units.
Luminar declined to comment.
Reporting with Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Edited by Matthew Lewis