Full Press Release:
STOCKHOLM AND SYDNEY - July 19, 2021
Baraja, creator of the breakthrough Spectrum-Scan™ LiDAR technology for autonomous vehicles, has signed an agreement with Tier 1 automotive supplier Veoneer to industrialize Spectrum-Scan™ LiDAR technology for the next market wave of L2+ through L4 autonomous vehicle applications.
Under the agreement, Veoneer will develop, market, and integrate a scalable Spectrum-Scan™ platform from Baraja to serve the automotive market.
Veoneer chose to partner with Baraja after extensive testing, as Baraja offers robust technology and a roadmap that lends itself to be among the smallest-size LiDARs to enable vehicle integration.
Baraja’s Spectrum-Scan™ LiDAR connects a wavelength-tunable laser to prism-like optics, deflecting the light in different directions to achieve scanning with higher reliability and lower cost. Baraja’s randomly modulated continuous wave (RMCW) technology enables industry leading interference rejection and the ability to measure instantaneous velocity which distinguishes it from traditional Time of Flight (ToF) approaches.
“Veoneer is a natural partner for us. We built our Spectrum-Scan™ technology to enable autonomous driving that is safer, more accessible and ready today for the next generation of vehicles. By combining our technology with Veoneer’s vast experience in automotive design and platform integration, this partnership helps ensure the world’s leading automotive brands can bring that autonomous reality to more people,” said Federico Collarte, Founder & CEO of Baraja.
Spectrum-Scan™ enables Level 4 autonomy
Baraja Spectrum-Scan™ LiDAR completely rethinks the way autonomous vehicles see the world around them. Instead of relying on fragile moving parts and oscillating mirrors, it uses dispersive optics to scan the environment, significantly improving reliability and robustness compared to traditional FMCW or spinning LiDAR. Baraja has tested its LiDAR in the harshest conditions, from the outback to arctic tundra, to ensure it works in any condition.
Baraja Spectrum-Scan™ LiDAR creates high-resolution pointclouds to accurately detect objects at more than 250 metres away at speed, while remaining immune to interference from other sensors or light sources. The technology is also more tolerant to factors that have hindered traditional LiDAR systems such as heat, shock and vibration.
Veoneer and Baraja bring world-class expertise closer together
The technology will be complemented with Veoneer’s decades-long industry experience in developing automotive grade sensing solutions for driver assistance and autonomy applications to create a new generation of LiDAR systems enabling automakers to detect and classify objects faster and with more precision.
“Veoneer is committed to offering safe, robust, high-quality sensor solutions to vehicle manufacturers globally. We have performed extensive research among 70 LiDAR technology companies globally, and have come to the conclusion that by partnering with Baraja, Veoneer will be able to offer and integrate scalable automotive-grade LiDAR-sensors in future cars, at competitive prices,” said Jan Carlson, Chairman, President and CEO of Veoneer.
About Baraja
Baraja is building the future of LiDAR to enable the autonomous future. With its revolutionary Spectrum-Scan™ LiDAR technology, Baraja gives leading automotive companies a solid state system in the fast axis that sets a new benchmark in precision and reliability.
Baraja was founded in 2016 by telecommunications engineers Federico Collarte and Cibby Pulikkaseril, who discovered a way to use the industry’s proven optical fiber + photonics technology to solve the problems faced by legacy LiDAR. Baraja is backed by Sequoia, Blackbird Ventures, Hitachi Construction Machinery and Main Sequence Ventures.
About Veoneer, Inc.
Veoneer, Inc. is a worldwide leader in automotive technology. Our purpose is to create trust in mobility. We design, develop, and manufacture state-of-the-art software, hardware and systems for occupant protection, advanced driving assistance systems, and collaborative and automated driving to OEMs globally. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Veoneer has 7,500 employees in 11 countries. In 2020, sales amounted to $1.37 billion. The Company is building on a heritage of close to 70 years of automotive safety development. In 2018, Veoneer became an independent, publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:VNE) and on the Nasdaq Stockholm (SSE: VNE SDB).
