LiDAR officially referenced in ADAS development

[Electric Rivilution]

Another great find by @Hilbe!

This job post specifically mentions LiDAR as part of Rivian's current ADAS development.

https://careers.rivian.com/careers-home/jobs/23291?lang=en-us&previousLocale=en-US

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[ACDC]

So what do we think the first Rivian to get it will be?? R2, R3X, something beyond those?

 

[NY_Rob]

So what do we think the first Rivian to get it will be?? R2, R3X, something beyond those?

How expensive is the LIDAR unit? R2 is specifically supposed to be the "budget offering", if the LIDAR adds significant cost, I wouldn't expect it in the base level R2. Other auto manufacturers offer higher cost "tech package" options, maybe that's something they could offer for the R2 line? I'd be happy with that..

 

[mkg3]

There was an image of R2 with front roof LIDAR bump about a moth ago posted here, so probably R2.

Cost wise, its has come down significantly and even iPhones has LIDAR built in. That said, for ADAS use, it will require more than one and HW cost is probably in the noise compared to the SW development cost to implement LIDAR.

Expect Rivian to charge subscription for ADAS to offset the cost.

 

[godfodder0901]

Rivian has been using LiDaR for years already...

 

[NY_Rob]

Rivian has been using LiDaR for years already...

In production vehicles??

 

[godfodder0901]

In production vehicles??

No, never in production. They use it to map roads for HWA and RAP.

 

[CaseyH]

I don't think this proves that LiDAR will make it to production vehicles. Anyone doing ADAS (even Tesla) has test vehicles with LiDAR to calibrate/validate/train the camera/radar based sensor suite in production vehicles. Essentially; LiDAR for test/calibration/model training does not mean we will see LiDAR on production vehicles.

EDIT:

Ok; I will say the way it is worded in the job descriptions (found another one mentioning LiDAR "Experience with sensor fusion (LiDAR, camera, radar) in a learned model") does kinda make it seem like LiDAR will be part of the vehicle ADAS stack.

Examples:

https://insideevs.com/news/509606/tesla-lidar-use-more-complex/

 

[MountainBikeDude]

LiDAR is becoming cheaper, and they've made statements that they always favored a multi modal approach to autonomy which would include the addition of LiDAR at some point.

LiDAR was meant to be part of R1 Gen1 and was mounted inboard of the fog lights. The theory was it was removed due to supply chain complexity and cost at the time, but has since never been reintroduced.

 

[Dark-Fx]

It does look like they are planning on putting it into R1 at some point based on their recent laser imaging patent. I wonder if they'll offer the option to upfit older gen2 vehicles.

 

[Windblade]

How expensive is the LIDAR unit? R2 is specifically supposed to be the "budget offering", if the LIDAR adds significant cost, I wouldn't expect it in the base level R2. Other auto manufacturers offer higher cost "tech package" options, maybe that's something they could offer for the R2 line? I'd be happy with that..

Depending on the range requirements and mounting location (similar to radar, there are a variety of LiDAR including long, short and wide FOVs), ADAS quality automotive production LiDAR has dropped from ~$2600 OEM cost in 2022 to <$1k; Vendors are working to reduce to ~$350 and less in the next 3 years. This does not include the cost of development, testing (lots and lots of this), production setup, etc. which the OEM typically bears. Putting that in perspective, Continental's 1st generation radar was ~2,500 EURO thirty five years ago and now sells for ~$60. Multimodal sensing (color, radar, LiDAR) is a great thing for autonomy... Level III, here we come.

 

[docwhiz]

How expensive is the LIDAR unit? R2 is specifically supposed to be the "budget offering", if the LIDAR adds significant cost, I wouldn't expect it in the base level R2. Other auto manufacturers offer higher cost "tech package" options, maybe that's something they could offer for the R2 line? I'd be happy with that..

The Chinese say Lidar units are down to about $100 now.

 

[NY_Rob]

The Chinese say Lidar units are down to about $100 now.

I guess they've been putting them in their cars so the per-unit cost came down significantly?

 

[therealcmj]

It does look like they are planning on putting it into R1 at some point based on their recent laser imaging patent. I wonder if they'll offer the option to upfit older gen2 vehicles.

a patent filing doesn’t mean anything about plans. I am the inventor on a patent but the higher ups at my company (who technically owns the patent) had no knowledge of it and zero intention of doing anything with what I invented. I came up with the idea based on my work; told my boss, he told me to contact the lawyers we have for that, they asked some questions, wrote the anpplication, asked me to review it, and then a while later I got a check and a plaque in the mail.

Tech companies do this all the time. If you don’t do it and you ever do want to act on it and someone else has filed something similar then you’re in deep trouble. But also having a bunch of patents gives you protection when someone comes and wants money because they think you’re infringing on one of their patents. The lawyers then get to look through your company’s list of patents and what the people threatening to sue you are doing and invariably they find something they can point to and say “you want to sue us? Well do it. And we’ll sue you back for infringing this and this and this and this!” And you both agree not to sue each other and just license each other’s patents. Sometimes for money, sometimes for $0.

 

[AlphaSnowbordergirl]

Could be for their fleet that goes around the country to map roads too. It doesn't necessarily have to be for the cars they are producing for the masses.

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