Lidar technology: economical for cars?

DW (English)

German companies such as Bosch, ZF and Continental have suspended the development of lidar technology for the time being. But the technology, which uses a laser to scan the environment, will be needed for autonomous driving in the future as a supplement to cameras and radar.

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 Largely autonomous driving is slowly becoming a reality.

00:07 More and more cars and drivers

00:09 are relying on assistance systems,

00:11 such as lane keeping, swerving, and braking assistance.

00:16 But to achieve full autonomy,

00:18 much more modern technology is needed.

00:20 - Radar and camera alone will not challenge this,

00:27 but together with LiDAR,

00:29 we will get this robustness we are looking for.

00:32 - LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging,

00:38 a system that provides high resolution 3D information

00:41 in real time with lasers.

00:44 The technology is also used in vacuum cleaner robots

00:51 that use it to scan the room,

00:53 or in iPhones, which enable a 3D scan.

00:58 (upbeat music)

01:00 But it's also used in highly complex space maneuvers,

01:06 where navigation and weightlessness

01:08 has to be accurate to the millimeter.

01:10 - SpaceX Dragon uses LiDAR

01:13 to navigate to the space station or dock.

01:16 Not only that, SpaceX developed its own LiDAR

01:19 from scratch to do that,

01:21 and I spearheaded that effort personally,

01:24 because in that scenario, LiDAR makes sense,

01:27 and in cars, it's freaking stupid.

01:29 It's expensive and unnecessary.

01:32 - The German automotive supplier Bosch has a similar view.

01:37 Most vehicles are still geared

01:38 toward partially automated driving.

01:40 The driver is supported, not replaced.

01:43 In technical jargon, the so-called level two.

01:46 - There's a very high demand

01:47 for level two functionalities in the market.

01:50 So we see 60% of the market is asking

01:52 for level two plus functionalities by mid of the decade.

01:56 So we have decided to focus on that topics,

01:58 and for that topics, the LiDAR is not mandatory

02:00 to have in the vehicle.

02:02 Instead, we are focusing our development predominantly

02:05 on other technologies, like video perception,

02:08 video sensors, but also radar sensors.

02:10 - Bosch is thus focusing on improving existing technology.

02:15 They want to wait until interest

02:17 in LiDAR technology increases in the market,

02:21 which will certainly happen.

02:24 Autonomous driving was a major topic at the IAA Auto Show,

02:29 and it's no longer possible to imagine driving without it.

02:32 - We see that in future, the cars will drive autonomously,

02:35 and there we need the LiDAR as a third technology

02:38 to have a robust and reliable system on the road.

02:41 It will start in the next few years already,

02:44 for sure starting with lower volumes,

02:47 but then will grow over time

02:49 until the next five, six, seven years.

02:53 - The first fully autonomous cars are already driving

02:56 on the streets of San Francisco.

02:58 It's still a test, but it's certainly the future.

03:04 (upbeat music)

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