Velodyne Executive Addresses Why Lidar is Necessary for Safe Vehicle Automation at IAA 2019 Conference

Marta Hall, President and Chief Business Development Officer of Velodyne Lidar, Inc. will address the future of vehicle safety at the IAA 2019 Conference in Frankfurt. Hall’s presentation will highlight the development of advanced, cost-effective lidar technology for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomy, particularly to protect pedestrians, assist drivers and save lives. The event will take place at Velodyne’s booth (Hall 8.0, Booth A13) on September 18 at 11:00 a.m. CEST (GMT+2).

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“There are dozens of companies working on autonomous vehicles. Incredible possibilities have opened as a result of the engineering efforts towards autonomy. In rolling out full autonomy, our customers put safety first. That means they use redundant systems with both lidar and cameras,” said Hall.

Hall has championed vehicle safety since Velodyne Lidar began developing and producing lidar technology in 2007. Her industry leadership efforts include Velodyne’s partnership with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to promote public education on the safety benefits of autonomous vehicle technology. Hall also created the annual World Safety Summit on Autonomous Technology, which addresses safety issues and public concern regarding autonomous vehicles. In June, Hall rebutted Elon Musk’s claim that self-driving cars do not need lidar, effectively advocating the necessity of lidar technology for safety.

During her IAA 2019 Conference presentation, Hall will discuss how the same technology required for safe autonomy can be applied to powerful ADAS solutions, including pedestrian avoidance, lane keeping assist, automatic emergency braking and more. Employing lidar, along with a few inexpensive cameras for redundancy, is a revolutionary approach to safety, allowing vehicles to detect and avoid objects in a range of environmental conditions and roadway settings. In the safe deployment of autonomous technology, most leaders agree redundant systems are a must.

Hall will explain that lidar vision enhances vehicle safety because the technology provides a high-resolution image for object classification and tracking, along with real-time distance measurements of surrounding objects. This capability enables advanced collision avoidance. Even more, lidar performance is superior to that of cameras because it does not suffer in low light conditions. This is crucial for roadway safety because crashes occur at a higher rate in the dark. For example, whereas cameras struggle to see beyond the vehicle’s headlights, lidar can detect a pedestrian, bicyclist or animal at night should any of them enter the roadway, giving the vehicle’s system time to react and avoid a collision. Therefore, it is possible to prevent many deaths and injuries, day and night, by employing systems which use lidar for perception and object avoidance.

World Safety Summit on Autonomous Technology

Hall will also be promoting the second annual World Safety Summit on Autonomous Technology, which takes place in San Jose, Calif. on October 2, 2019. The event began as an effort to bring leaders in the autonomous space together to brainstorm best practices and transparent approaches to public safety.

The World Safety Summit brings together leaders from automobile, tech and new mobility companies, plus government representatives and community leaders to discuss the roll-out of vehicle autonomy. The summit addresses public concerns for safety and technical evaluation, with keynote speakers, panel discussions and demonstrations. This year, the summit has doubled in size, with about 750 registered attendees and more than a half-dozen autonomous vehicles on display. To register to attend the summit, please visit the event website.

“We cannot become numb to the ongoing epidemic of roadway collisions. With lidar, we now have the technology to make driving safer,” said Velodyne Lidar Vice President of Communications Sally Frykman, who along with Hall is spearheading the summit.

About Velodyne Lidar

Velodyne provides smart, powerful lidar solutions for autonomy and driver assistance. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Velodyne is known worldwide for its portfolio of breakthrough lidar sensor technologies. Velodyne’s Founder and CEO, David Hall, invented real-time surround view lidar systems in 2005 as part of Velodyne Acoustics. Mr. Hall’s invention revolutionized perception and autonomy for automotive, new mobility, mapping, robotics, and security. Velodyne’s high-performance product line includes a broad range of sensing solutions, including the cost-effective Puck™, the versatile Ultra Puck™, the autonomy-advancing Alpha Puck™, the ADAS-optimized Velarray™, and the groundbreaking software for driver assistance, Vella™.

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Contact information

Sean Dowdall
Landis Communications Inc. for Velodyne Lidar, Inc.
(415) 286-7121
velodyne@landispr.com