South Korean automotive supplier Carnavicom has launched new lidar scanning sensors that are an average of 26% cheaper thanks to the local procurement of parts and key components. The company says its efforts have made the integration of lidar sensors into other lidar products and applications more affordable.
Among the new breed is the VL-AS16 lidar sensor, launched at CES 2020, which is a 16-channel scanning unit suitable for autonomous driving environments. In addition, the supplier revealed its newly developed 3-channel lidar and announced its plans to introduce affordable, 1,550nm wavelength solid-state lidar units as well as versatile, industrial units.
“Our continuous development of advanced lidar sensors underlines our philosophy of putting the safety of vehicle occupants and pedestrians first,” said CEO Jeremy Chong, under whose leadership Carnavicom has been growing since 2001.
Carnavicom currently supplies driving video recorders and electronic toll collection systems to Mercedes-Benz Korea and is also the parent company of Vugera, one of the largest aftermarket dash-cam brands in the South Korean market, which plans to launch in North America in Q2 2020.
In order to realize the deployment of ADAS technologies, Carnavicom has invested around US$3.5m in the construction of a surface-mount technology (SMT) manufacturing line with an annual production capacity of over 1,800,000 units.