On April 19th, IT Home learned from the official website of Innovusion, a LiDAR and solution provider, that on April 19th, 2023, Innovusion and Fuyao Group, one of the world’s largest automotive glass professional suppliers, announced that the two sides had officially reached a cooperation agreement.
According to the official announcement, the two sides will fully leverage their forward-looking and technological advantages as industry leaders, and jointly focus on the innovative development and commercialization of LiDAR integration solutions, providing new and practical installation ideas for LiDAR at the critical moment when LiDAR is accelerating mass production and being installed on vehicles.
According to the introduction, the golden installation position behind the front windshield, which is the usual installation position for the front camera, does not affect the vehicle’s appearance design, allowing the vehicle to have a larger design space. It can also protect the lidar from external environmental interference through the protection of the front windshield, reducing the chance of dirt and damage, and becoming one of the most imaginative solutions.
However, this installation position also has many technical difficulties. Firstly, the lidar detection signal will be partially attenuated after passing through the car’s front windshield, affecting the lidar’s detection performance. Secondly, the built-in solution amplifies the problem of lidar motor noise and heat dissipation performance because the driver and lidar are in the same space, putting forward new requirements for the lidar power. Finally, in order to facilitate integration with the original camera module, the volume and quality of the lidar need to be more strictly controlled.
Fuyao Group has achieved optimization of the transmission rate of the characteristic band infrared light of the lidar through improving production processes and changing glass combination structures, solving technical problems such as lidar signal attenuation caused by curved windshield structures. It fills the gap in the domestic market in this field and takes the lead in promoting the practical application of lidar integrated behind the front windshield.
Meanwhile, Innovusion has developed a highly integrated new forward-facing LiDAR product called Robin-E, with dimensions of only 117mm100mm44mm, a total weight of about 450 grams, power consumption of less than 9W, and noise level below 20dB, further solving the problems encountered by LiDAR integrated in the front windshield.
Based on their high attention to the integration of LiDAR in the front windshield, the two parties have started joint development, integrating their latest technology products. The initial plan has achieved the integration of LiDAR and camera behind the front windshield, with detection performance attenuation of less than 10%.
