Stellantis VC arm invests in breakthrough LiDAR technology for ADAS

Stellantis Ventures, the corporate venture fund of Stellantis, has announced that it has invested in SteerLight, the developer of a new generation of high-performance LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensing technology.

Employing silicon photonics technology, which combines a universal semiconductor material with the speed of photos, the SteerLight LiDAR senses the surrounding environment in three dimensions with higher resolution and precision, and at a lower volume production cost, than currently available LiDAR systems.

The technology has the potential to give drivers of future Stellantis brand vehicles better performance in a variety of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), including automated driving.

“A central aspect of our Dare Forward 2030 initiatives is identifying groundbreaking technologies that deliver substantial value to our customers on a large scale,” said Ned Curic, Stellantis Chief Engineering & Technology Officer. “Automated driving enhancements remain a top priority at Stellantis. The game-changing work at SteerLight can enable enhanced and widespread ADAS applications.”

“We see a great benefit from having Stellantis’ corporate venture fund recognize our innovation so we can unlock large-scale adoption of LiDAR for industrial and mobility applications,” said François Simoens, co-founder and CEO of SteerLight. “Our new LiDAR technology is key to support new services in the automotive industry, and we are looking forward to working together to advance the next generation of vehicles.”

SteerLight, a spinoff of the French CEA-Leti technology centre, employs Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) LiDAR based on silicon photonics technology that puts the system on a microchip. The system is robust (no moving parts) and compact, maximizing flexibility for vehicle engineers. It overcomes challenges of today’s LiDAR technology for vehicles – component size and high cost. The FMCW technology provides highly accurate depth and velocity data while resisting interference from the surrounding environment and other users.

Since its inception in 2022, Stellantis Ventures has invested in 12 startups and one mobility fund, focused on developing cutting-edge technologies that will improve outcomes for individual customers and society as a whole.