AID teams up with Luminar for advanced LiDAR sensing technology

AID-Autonomous Intelligent Driving, a wholly-owned subsidiary of 2125 Audi, is partnering with Luminar Technologies to deploy LiDAR products.

Launched in March last year, AID has an autonomous vehicle (AV) test fleet in <%$Linker:2External<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary />000link-external Munichfalsehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLGFB8hcpHU&amp;feature=youtu.befalsefalse%> and bills itself as the ‘centre of excellence’ for urban autonomous driving in the 994 Volkswagen Group.

Luminar LiDARs will be installed on the roof of the AVs to give a 360-degree field of view.

“Perception remains a bottleneck today for autonomous mobility and we quickly worked to find the most powerful sensors to make the perception task easier,” says AID chief technology officer Alexandre Haag. “That's where Luminar comes in - the technology is clearly above the pack in terms of range and density, which is important for solving the most challenging problems in autonomy.”

LiDAR´s 3D mapping technology has become instrumental in enabling AVs to measure the distance of objects and ‘see’ the world in front of them, the company says.

“Including Luminar Technologies in our partnership programme brings us one step closer to

achieving our mission to drive fully autonomously by 2021 in urban areas,” Haag adds.