Hella strengthens AI position

Hella has announced a closer relationship with AEye which will see both companies combine their technical expertise.

AEye’s iDAR artificial perception system is an industry leader in range and scan rate performance for automotive-grade LiDAR. iDAR is a new form of intelligent data collection that fuses 1550 nanometer (nm), solid-state agile LiDAR with a low-light HD camera and embedded AI to intelligently capture data at the sensor level. Hella will bring its competence in the field of embedded software and image processing as well as its automotive experience and industrialisation capabilities along the entire supply chain, to leverage and extend this platform.

This joint development effort will bring best-in-class Level 3 ADAS solutions to global automotive OEMs.

Blair LaCorte, President of AEye said, ‘Hella is an ideal strategic partner for AEye as we look to ramp production capabilities to meet the demand of our OEM partners. Hella has an excellent track record working with automotive OEMs, and I anticipate great synergies as we look to roll out next generation perception capabilities that meet their needs both today, and in the future.’

Frank Petznick, responsible for Automated Driving at Hella, said, ‘Hella is actively promoting the trend towards AD. The collaboration with AEye will provide us with additional opportunities to catalyse new functionality for ADAS and AD solutions that will redefine performance.’

The first joint development project will start immediately, with the objective of a SOP in 2022.