MicroVision long-range lidar research has made progress with detection distance up to 200 meters

According to foreign media reports, on November 10, local time, the US company MicroVision announced that it has made significant progress in the development of the first generation of MEMS (micro-electromechanical system) dynamic scanning long-range lidar (LRL) sensor modules, including the ability to continue to develop to meet the key requirements of the automotive industry, and the company believes that this progress will promote its R&D goals, that is, by April 2021, mass production demonstration hardware and benchmarking. Such preliminary product tests demonstrate some key features of its long-range lidar sensors, such as a detection range of up to 200 meters, and the sensor can continue to work in sunlight, when encountering lidars of other vehicles and other rogue signals. The company believes that progress in the development of such features is of great significance to its pursuit of potential strategic alternatives, such as selling the company or merging with other companies. MicroVision is a company focused on developing laser scanning technology for projection, 3D sensing and image capture.

(Image source: MicroVision)

“We anticipate that automotive standards will require long-range LiDAR products with a range of up to 200 meters and 10% reflectivity, enabling a LiDAR sensor to detect a piece of tire debris on the road and enable the vehicle to avoid such a hazard at highway speeds,” said Sumit Sharma, CEO of MicroVision. “I am confident that the MicroVision team is working hard to meet these requirements with our first generation LRL sensor module, which also has high resolution at full range. Our initial product testing has proven that the sensor module, using our proprietary new MEMS scanning technology, can suppress noise from sunlight and other light sources, a key feature of all our future products. I am also confident that we can achieve this capability in the sensor module and enable MicroVision to meet the key LiDAR technology requirements of automotive OEMs, giving MicroVision a strategic advantage in the LRL space.”

Mr. Sharma added: “We are excited about the progress we have made on our first generation MEMS scanning LRL sensor module. By developing and demonstrating such core functionality early, we will be able to start hardware testing in April 2021.”