Stellantis has announced that it will equip Valeo’s third-gen LiDAR into its automotive brands, including Citroën, from 2024.
“What sets our cars apart from others today is the driving experience they offer. Thanks to our L3 autonomous driving solution leveraging Valeo’s latest generation LiDAR, we will offer a more enjoyable driving experience and give back time to the driver during their journeys,” Stellantis’ Chief Software Officer Yves Bonnefont explained.
Bonnefont was appointed deputy managing director of Citroën in 2013, and from 2015 and to January 2020 served as Chief Executive Officer of DS Automobiles. In January 2021, he was appointed Chief Software Officer of Stellantis and a member of its Top Executive Team.
LiDAR recreates a 3D image of the vehicle’s surroundings using a point cloud. It can map the ground topology and detect road markings, all with unparalleled resolution of competitive automotive systems.
According to Valeo, its third-generation LiDAR sees everything, even when an object is far ahead, invisible to the human eye. It can identify objects more than 150 meters ahead that neither the human eye, cameras nor radars can, even small objects with very low reflectivity. (For example a tire lying on the road at night.)
Bonnefont claims that the Valeo SCALA 3 LIDAR will enable Stellantis vehicles to be certified for level 3 automation, allowing drivers to safely take their hands off the steering wheel and their eyes off the road. And through its data collection capabilities, this LiDAR will enable new services to be offered to Stellantis’ customers.
“Our third-generation Valeo Scala LiDAR offers a resolution nearly 50 times that of the second-generation device”, claims Bonnefont. “The technology comes with unique data collection features, allowing Stellantis to pave the way for new vehicle experiences.”