Magna, Innoviz to Supply BMW With Lidar Technology

Canadian automotive supplier Magna and Israeli high-tech startup Innoviz Technologies will supply BMW Group with solid-state lidar for future autonomous-vehicle production platforms.

The solid-state, high-resolution lidar technology enables Level 4 (highly automated) and Level 5 (completely automated) driving by generating a 3D point cloud of the vehicle’s surroundings in real time, even in challenging settings such as direct sunlight, varying weather conditions and multi-lidar environments, Magna says in a news release.

Lidar sensors, which use lasers to help self-driving cars to navigate, will be available as a built-in device beginning next year, Innoviz says in a separate release.

The scalable, flexible technology provides a complete computer-vision software stack and algorithms to turn 3D vision into critical driving insights. The Magna/Innoviz sensing solution delivers on critical needs including performance, cost and compact size, the release says.

“We value the opportunity to support a premier brand such as BMW with our innovative technologies in sensors and systems,” says Kelei Shen, president of Magna Electronics. “Our strong system capability and expertise at the fundamental vehicle architecture level gives us the ability to provide scalable solutions for different levels of autonomy.”

Adds Omer Keilaf, Innoviz co-founder and CEO: “BMW is setting a high standard in autonomous vehicles development, and their vote of confidence in our lidar demonstrates how advanced our technology is. The Innoviz and Magna teams collaborated to meet BMW requirements in quality and validation plans and functional safety.

“Automakers have been looking for a lidar technology provider to deliver a mass-market solution, and we are proud to see our product coming to series production.”

Magna in August 2017 introduced MAX4, a fully integrated, customizable and scalable platform that can enable up to Level 4 autonomous driving in both urban and highway environments. The lidar to be supplied to BMW is among the sensing and computing building blocks of the overall AV system, the company says.

BMW has said it plans to launch autonomous cars in 2021.