Driving the Future
Updated Fall 2020 |聽Spring 2019 | By聽Nicole Dudenhoefer 麻豆精品 S�17
Over the past several years, self-driving cars have become the next major frontier in transportation. At the forefront of this movement is Luminar, a seven-year- old company co-founded by Jason Eichenholz 麻豆精品 S�95MS 麻豆精品 S�98PhD. The company, which is based in Silicon聽Valley and Orlando, has developed more efficient and affordable methods for creating the technology behind these vehicles. So much so, they 麻豆精品 S檝e earned partnerships with Audi, Toyota, Volvo and more than a dozen other autonomous vehicle programs.
麻豆精品 S淥ur partnerships allow us to take the technology we 麻豆精品 S檙e developing and deploy it in the real world with real customers and get the kind of feedback needed to continue to innovate and make the product better, 麻豆精品 S� Eichenholz says.
Leading the race to create the first fully autonomous car is lidar, a sensor that uses infrared light to measure distance and enable autonomous vehicles to detect or 麻豆精品 S渟ee 麻豆精品 S� their surroundings.
The lidar developed by Luminar can see almost 10 times farther than other sensors, even for objects with less than 10 percent reflectivity. This allows the company 麻豆精品 S檚 software to perceive pedestrians in detail 麻豆精品 S� even detecting their limbs in the dark 麻豆精品 S� and anticipate what their next move will be.
麻豆精品 S淟uminar 麻豆精品 S檚 sensor architecture is incredibly efficient to build in terms of cost and time. It uses only one laser and one receiver, as opposed to most autonomous vehicle lidar sensors that use 64 lasers and 64 receivers. Pursuing this architecture from the beginning means it was designed from the chip level up to be scalable into consumer vehicles, both from a manufacturability and a cost standpoint, 麻豆精品 S� Eichenholz says.
In 2020, Luminar announced it would be going public with a multi-billion dollar deal and the tech company made 贵辞谤迟耻苍别 麻豆精品 S�s Impact 20 list.
In 2020, Luminar announced it would merge with special purpose acquisition company Gores Metropoulos Inc., for a deal evaluated at $3.4 billion, according to Tech Crunch. This same year,聽Fortune included the tech company in its inaugural Impact 20 list, which聽recognizes young, developing companies that are already making people 麻豆精品 S檚 lives better. Eichenholz also received i4 Business magazine’s 2020 Business Leader of the Year Industry award聽for his聽work has to help position Central Florida and UCF on the cutting edge of industry and technology.
麻豆精品 S淭his milestone is pivotal for the future of the autonomous car industry and the automotive industry at large because there is a clear opportunity for us to set a new baseline standard for vehicle safety industry-wide, 麻豆精品 S� Eichenholz says. 麻豆精品 S淎utonomy presents an opportunity to save lives through enhanced safety and active safety systems, which are systems activated in response to a safety problem or abnormal event. Through this milestone, we have the opportunity to deliver what we believe is the world 麻豆精品 S檚 first autonomous solution for series production, powering highway autonomy and proactive safety. 麻豆精品 S�
The race to create self-driving cars:
Setting Expectations
The SAE (former Society of Automotive Engineers) recognizes six levels of autonomous driving, ranging from 0 to 5. Most newer vehicles on the road today are levels 1 to 2, in which systems 麻豆精品 S� such as automatic braking and park assist 麻豆精品 S� are performed by the car. Vehicles within levels 3 to 5 aren 麻豆精品 S檛 commercially available at this time, but many automakers are working聽toward level 5 vehicles, which will be able to operate without a driver under all conditions. 麻豆精品 S淲hile advanced driver-assistance systems can be great, there are limitations to what these systems can do today. People typically over-rely on them, thinking [the cars are] actually self-driving when [they are using] assistance features, and that [can lead to accidents]. 麻豆精品 S�
Overcoming Challenges
麻豆精品 S淐ars are not able to perceive the world around them, and yet we 麻豆精品 S檙e asking cars and computers to provide higher-than-human-level performance and reliability. I think if you look at the current trajectory of how cars are improving, you 麻豆精品 S檙e looking at decades before technology is safer than a human in every driving scenario, anywhere. 麻豆精品 S�
Reducing Costs
麻豆精品 S淭he most fundamental thing is the receiver technology. Instead of using only silicone as the receiver, we use a very small piece of InGaAs, indium gallium arsenide, to do the photo detection. It 麻豆精品 S檚 a very common semiconductor material that is usually expensive to manufacture. We figured out how to do it for about $3. 麻豆精品 S�
Using a Different Wavelength
麻豆精品 S淵ears ago, we fundamentally made a decision to operate [the lasers used for lidar] at a different wavelength band, 1550 nanometers [compared to the industry average of 905 nanometers, which can damage eyes]. This allows us to see further and have a much higher spatial resolution 麻豆精品 S� all while being safer. 麻豆精品 S�
Adapting to Drivers
麻豆精品 S淭he needs of sensors for self-driving vehicles are so different from customer to customer or from driving condition to driving condition. Because of this we 麻豆精品 S檝e designed our system to change dynamically to adapt to user needs. 麻豆精品 S�
Improving Accessibility
While there are major concerns surrounding the safety of self-driving vehicles, they could eventually make transportation easier for the millions of people in the United States who are unable to drive. 麻豆精品 S淚 have a son, a 13 year old whom I adore, who has autism. I 麻豆精品 S檓 pretty sure he 麻豆精品 S檚 never going to get a driver 麻豆精品 S檚 license. I desperately want safe, reliable transportation for my son so he can have a quality of life. So I can [rely on] self-driving vehicles [to] safely get him from聽point A to point B. So this is very personal for me. 麻豆精品 S�
An example of highway perception captured by Luminar 麻豆精品 S檚 lidar, which uses boxes to symbolize other vehicles on the road.
Luminar 麻豆精品 S檚 pose estimation feature predicts pedestrians 麻豆精品 S� movement to order to help autonomous vehicles anticipate how they should move next.
Co-founders Jason Eichenholz 麻豆精品 S�95MS 麻豆精品 S�98PhD and Austin Russell test out their technology inside a vehicle.
The Luminar team prepares to test a vehicle in at their office in Palo Alto, California.
Employees in Luminar 麻豆精品 S檚 Orlando office work to advance the company 麻豆精品 S檚 technology.
By using an innovative method to utilize inGaS with silicon, Luminar has been able to reduce the cost of its receivers from tens of thousands of dollar to $3.
Luminar 麻豆精品 S檚 sensing platform features a clean design.