AEye, Inc. has announced a new development partnership with TuSimple, a global self-driving technology company. TuSimple is working with VW’s TRATON Group to develop a commercial-ready fully autonomous system for heavy-duty trucks and is co-developing Level 4 self-driving trucks with Navistar, targeting production in 2024. According to the announcement, TuSimple selected AEye as a development partner based on the AEye LiDAR platform’s ability to address the most challenging autonomous trucking situations.
“AEye’s adaptive LiDAR complements our solution, with its ultra-long-range, high performance, enabling object acquisition and avoidance capabilities at highway speeds that are imperative for safe autonomous trucking implementations,” explained Chuck Price, Chief Product Officer at TuSimple. “AEye’s software-configurable hardware enables us to utilize a single sensor for both low speed, wide Field-of-View cut-ins and high speed, long-range, small object detection – flexibility that is incredibly powerful for addressing the wide scope of trucking corner cases.”
Independent Verification
As described by AEye, the company’s LiDAR uses adaptive sensing to offer a 1,000-meter range. Its resolution and speed have been independently verified by automated vehicle technology evaluator, VSI Labs. AEye’s LiDAR delivers more than twice the range and over two times the resolution of any long-range LiDAR, according to the most recent third-party test data. Additionally, as a software-configurable LiDAR, customers can use the same LiDAR hardware optimized for each application, ranging from complex merging to hub-to-hub highway automation.
“We are pleased to partner with TuSimple in advancing reliable highway autonomy for long-haul trucks,” said Blair LaCorte, CEO at AEye. “AEye’s high-performance LiDAR system enables detection of road debris, pedestrians, vehicles, and more at extremely long ranges, with software-configurable control that enables TuSimple’s full-stack to navigate complex environments at speed.”
Future Outlook
According to data from Acumen Research and Consulting, the partially and fully autonomous truck market is expected to reach approximately $88 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate of greater than 10 percent between 2020 and 2027. “We look forward to a rich partnership with TuSimple, deploying the next generation of autonomous solutions for the trucking industry,” LaCorte added.
In February, Women in Autonomy hosted a virtual panel that examined the key economic factors behind autonomous trucking, including what challenges currently exist and how rollouts may take shape in the future.
