ICA Summit Award 2023: Valeo LiDAR Technology Awarded

Valeo's LiDAR technology has received two more awards: At the Autobest Gala on May 11th, it won the Safetybest Award 2023 and on May 15th, it received the ICA Summit Award 2023 in the category "Automotive Sensor Hardware Solution of the Year." Valeo thus becomes the first Tier-1 company to win the Safetybest Award. Valeo's LiDAR had already received the Pace Award in 2018 and the Frost & Sullivan Market Leadership Award in 2022.

Orders worth over 1 billion euros

In March, Valeo announced that it had secured orders worth over 1 billion euros for the Scala 3, the company's latest generation of LiDAR, in the previous 18 months. The French manufacturer was the first company to produce LiDAR sensors and perception software for Level 3 autonomous driving on an industrial scale.

Valeo's LiDAR technology is the result of more than ten years of development, has been in production for over five years, and can be found in vehicles worldwide. The technology improves road safety and contributes to the development of automated mobility. (Clément Nouvel, CTO for the LiDAR division at Valeo)

For Robotaxis

With Valeo's Scala 1 and 2, conditionally automated driving in traffic jams became a reality. With Scala 3, due to a wider range of applications and support for higher speeds, the scope of use for private vehicles can be significantly expanded. Valeo is also a technological leader in equipping robotaxis. The Scala 3 makes it possible to deploy robotaxis on a large scale because Valeo can produce its technology in mass quantities.

Resolution of more than 12 million pixels per second

Using its laser-based system, Scala 3 creates a 3D image of the vehicle's surroundings and delivers a point cloud with a resolution previously unattained by an automotive system. With more than 12 million pixels per second (16 times more compared to Scala 2), a detection range of 200 m for objects with low reflectivity and 300 m for objects with high reflectivity, it sees almost everything, especially objects that are invisible to the human eye.

Identifying objects even in the dark

In addition to its hardware capabilities, Scala 3 has a range of software modules, including algorithms based on perception and artificial intelligence. This allows it to detect obstacles, rain and spray, or alignment errors, and the system can calibrate itself online. For example, on an unlit, black asphalt road, it can identify objects more than 150 m ahead – such as a stray tire – that neither the driver nor cameras or radar devices can reliably detect. It identifies, classifies, and tracks objects, providing the vehicle's data fusion system with a complete 3D mapping of the vehicle's surroundings and enabling autonomous driving. These software modules can be easily embedded in common SoC platforms and run on dedicated controllers or domain controllers.