“Our advantage is that we have long experience in both the optical field as well as car navigation,’’ Pioneer senior exec Satoshi Ohdate told Bloomberg. So Pioneer is drawing on its experience in optical and DVD technology as well as its expertise in navigation and digital signal processing.
Pioneer’s “3D-LIDAR” is incorporated in a MEMS mirror using a small aperture with a lens. It can precisely measure the distance to a remote object and detect the size of an object and determine its shape. Pioneer calls the technology “indispensable” when it comes to autonomous cars. The technology is also low cost.
Pioneer is also using digital signal processing to improve the measurement of dark colored and distant objects, which is difficult to achieve with conventional lidar.
