Does 4D LiDAR mark the next wave of AV perception technology?

Could innovative new 4D LiDAR sensing technology accelerate trucking’s move into an autonomous future and solve the driver shortage forever? That’s the premise at Aeva, a company founded by former Apple engineers and specialising in LiDAR, which helps partially automated and self-driving vehicles gain a multidimensional view of the road.

But Aeva’s LiDAR is not just any LiDAR. The company claims that its 4D units use a fundamentally different technology approach from the legacy LiDAR sensors on the market today. Harnessing a unique Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) technology, it measures instant velocity in addition to 3D range position, allowing autonomous vehicles and machines to accurately perceive where things are and exactly how quickly they are moving. Peter Kuepper, Vice President of Business Development at the company, describes it as “a huge leap forward.”