Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups in the automotive industry. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we decided to share some of our insights with you. Along with decision-making algorithms, the performance of sensors is one of the key components in reaching an era where self-driving cars are dominating or even completely taking over our transportation system. So, let’s take a look at promising sensor solutions for autonomous vehicles.
Heat Map: 5 Out Of 500 Sensor Startups
For our 5 picks of sensor startups, we used a data-driven startup scouting approach to identify the most relevant solutions globally. The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 5 interesting examples out of 500 highly relevant sensor solutions for autonomous vehicles. Depending on your specific needs, your top 5 picks might look entirely different.
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Ranging Sensors
Metawave – Radar
Metawave, a company from Silicon Valley, develops intelligent beam steering radars for autonomous vehicles that can determine the speed and location of all road objects in all-weather conditions. The sensors are capable of a human-like interpretation of the world and, combined with Artificial Intelligence engines, the radars are capable of non-line of sight vision as well as many other features.
Toposens – Ultrasonic Sensor
Similar to radars, ultrasonic sensors are also locating objects via echolocation, and in this case, the echo is generated by high-frequency sound waves. Toposens, a German startup from Munich, offers 3D ultrasound sensor solutions for near-field environment monitoring, namely collision avoidance for autonomous vehicles.
Oryx – LiDAR
Next to radio and high-frequency sound waves, another way sensors measure the distance between objects, is light. LiDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors are illuminating objects with laser light, measuring the reflected pulses. Oryx, a startup from Israel, offers a flash LiDAR solution with antennas that are – unlike other photodetectors – not wavelength-restricted and produce not only range but velocity data as well. With this solution, Oryx provides all performance requirements of autonomous cars.
Imaging Sensors
Prophesee – Camera & Vision Sensor
Neuromorphic vision system is a new generation of machine vision based on the concept of neuromorphic engineering (“Neuromorphic sensors attempt to mimic the sensing and early visual-processing characteristics of living organisms.”). Prophese‘s technology introduces a new computer vision model based on how the human eye and brain work to improve the efficiency and intelligence of video processing for autonomous vehicles.
Owl Autonomous Imaging – Thermal Imaging
Another type of imaging sensor – thermal imaging – uses infrared radiation to create images. Owl Autonomous Imaging from the US develops 3D monocular thermal ranging to use in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) night vision solutions and, in turn, improves pedestrian detection and ranging precision.
What About The Other 495 Solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence for your Proof of Concept (PoC), partnership, or investment targets. The 5 sensor startups showcased above are promising examples out of 500 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria and collaboration strategy, get in touch.
