DURHAM, N.C. – Sense Photonics, a breakout LiDAR company known for its revolutionary solid-state FLASH architecture, has officially entered the automotive market with the introduction of Osprey, the first modular FLASH LiDAR for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving. Units are priced at $3,200 and are available now for preorder.
Osprey’s arrival is a major automotive milestone, ushering in a new era of fully solid-state depth sensing. Osprey features a 75-degree vertical field of view that is also ultra-wide and dense, enabling high-resolution object detection from the street curb to the horizon. It is designed as an easily-integrated modular package, combining an automotive-qualified near-field sensor with Sense Illuminator – a proprietary distributed VCSEL laser array comprised of thousands of individual laser elements. Osprey will be used by Sense Photonics’ automotive partners to test and develop the next generation of autonomous platforms with unprecedented performance and cost.
“Near-field sensing has been a major challenge for the automotive industry, especially in the development of autonomous driving,” said Sense Photonics CEO Scott Burroughs. “We designed Osprey to address key customer concerns, including affordability, reliability, and performance. Customers have been especially excited about our ability to eliminate all of the blind spots around the self-driving vehicle all the way down to the curb with unprecedented resolution.”
Sense Photonics worked with a major global manufacturing services provider on design-for-manufacturability to ensure that manufacturing processes for the Osprey would meet both the quality and scalability expectations of the automotive industry.
“Our simple, camera-like architecture is a significant benefit to customers looking for a scalable LiDAR product,” said Burroughs. “By eliminating mechanical-scanning mechanisms, we’ve made Osprey much more manufacturable than other approaches. We believe this is critical to bringing the vision of autonomous driving to life.”
Sense Photonics is actively working with a number of automotive partners, including an unannounced Tier 1 automotive supplier, multiple automotive OEMs and major self-driving programs, and German semiconductor manufacturer Infineon.
“Infineon is very excited to be working closely with Sense Photonics as it continues to push the limits in terms of near-field LiDAR solutions based on our automotive qualified REAL3™ Time-of-Flight imager,” said Christian Herzum, Head of 3D-Sensing product line at Infineon.
Osprey is the second LiDAR announcement from Sense Photonics this quarter. In October, the company announced the availability of an industrial-focused solid-state FLASH LiDAR system that raised performance standards across the industry for high-resolution data output. The company also closed a $26 million Series-A fundraising round in June.
Live demonstrations of Sense Photonics’ latest product breakthroughs will be on display at the 2020 CES conference in the Smart Cities Hall, Tech East, Westgate, Booth 721.
About Sense Photonics
Sense Photonics is building the next generation of LiDAR and 3D sensor solutions for autonomous vehicles, industrial robotics, material handling, activity monitoring, and many other applications. Our core technology—protected by over 200 patents—enables a simple, high-performance, solid-state solution with no moving parts that can uniquely meet the rigorous performance, reliability, and cost requirements for automotive and industrial applications. We are backed by leading VC and strategic investors and have developed partnerships with leading automotive and robotics customers. We are building an innovative, world-class company that designs and builds the world’s best 3D sensors and software solutions from our offices in Research Triangle Park, NC, San Francisco, CA, and Edinburgh, UK.
