Aeva Inc Secures Sensor Deal with AID

Aeva Inc, a California-based startup has secured a sensor-system deal with AID, Audi’s autonomous car unit, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

AID is developing autonomous car technology for Volkswagen AG. People familiar with the matter saidAID which is a “center of excellence” for Volkswagen autonomous driving efforts, will fuel its “e-tron” development fleet vehicles in Germany with lidar sensor.

With the help of the lidar sensor, cars will be able to get a three-dimensional view of the road. AID stated that the sensors will be used in the development of its so-called robo-taxis. The robo-taxis, which are autonomous, would help passengers travel around urban areas in the future.

In 2018, Aeva raised $45 million in venture funding led by Canaan and Lux Capital.

In an interview with Reuters, Alexandre Haag, AID’s CTO stated that AID was drawn to Aeva’s technology due to its potential of generating a 3-D map of the surroundings around a vehicle. Apart from that Mr Haag said that Aeva’s technology will also measure the velocity of objects around the vehicles in real-time, which could assist the sensor to identify things such as a pedestrian darting out between two vehicles.

In terms of lidar, Aeva’s sensor differs from most lidar units, and due to which it can measure the velocity of objects.

The financial terms of the deal were not revealed by any of the companies.