Innoviz Technologies announces new after-market LiDAR solution InnovizPro

author: Eric Walz   

On May 23, 2017 Innoviz Technologies, a provider of LiDAR intelligent sensing solutions designed for the mass commercialization of autonomous vehicles, announced the development of InnovizPro, an after-market LiDAR solution designed specifically for testing and R&D of autonomous driving technology.

About Innoviz Technologies

Innoviz develops cutting-edge LiDAR remote sensing solutions to enable the mass commercialization of autonomous vehicles. The company's flagship product, InnovizOne, offers a solid-state LiDAR product that uses patent-pending technology to deliver superior performance at the affordable costs and reduced sizes necessary for mass market adoption.

Headquartered in Israel, the company was founded in January 2016 by former members of the elite technological unit of the Israeli Defense Forces with renowned expertise in the fields of electro-optics, computer vision, MEMS design and signal processing.

Innoviz is backed by top-tier investors including Vertex Venture Capital, Magma Venture Partners, Amiti Ventures, Delek Investments and Mr. Zohar Zisapel. The company won the "Most Innovative Startup" Award at the Innovex Disrupt 2017 Contest.

InnovizPro

InnovizPro will deliver a high-definition, solid-state LiDAR device that uses Innoviz's patent-pending sensor technologies and proprietary architecture to deliver superior object detection and accuracy at lower costs than existing LiDAR solutions. The product will enable auto manufacturers, shared mobility companies, autonomous driving technology companies and Tier 1 suppliers to conduct effective development and testing of autonomous driving technology.

Earlier this year, Innoviz unveiled InnovizOne, its flagship automotive grade LiDAR device offering high-definition 3D scanning in a compact, affordable, solid-state design. Innoviz is currently engaging with leading stakeholders on the integration of InnovizOne into driving systems and is continuing development, targeting automotive grade quality for levels 3-5 autonomous driving.

Both InnovizOne and InnovizPro offer high-definition intelligent 3D sensing to provide an accurate and reliable scan of a vehicle's surroundings. The devices will leverage Innoviz's proprietary system, MEMS and detector design to deliver superior performance to existing LiDAR solutions, even in challenging environments such as night-time, bright sunlight and varying weather conditions.

InnovizOne

Additionally, the company's proprietary solid-state design reduces the number of moving parts compared to traditional LiDAR, enabling Innoviz to offer a smaller product footprint at mass market price.

"Our mission is to enable the autonomous vehicle revolution by providing the highest performance, lowest cost and most compact LiDAR solutions on the market," said Omer Keilaf, CEO & Co-Founder of Innoviz.

"Companies are currently spending tens of thousands of dollars on under-performing LiDAR solutions in order to test their autonomous vehicles. We've decided to release our current design and make it available for field production purposes now, because it is already so much more advanced and less expensive than what's currently available on the market. Meanwhile, we'll continue development on InnovizOne to get it to automotive grade standards by 2019."

Innoviz Partners with Jabil

The company has entered into an agreement with Jabil, a leading product solutions company providing comprehensive electronics design, production and product management services, to mass produce the product. InnovizPro will be available starting Q1 2018.

Keilaf added that "we teamed up with Jabil because of their recent investments in technology that enable autonomous driving for all types of vehicles. We are leveraging the engineering excellence of their Optics team, together with their automotive expertise, to support our new product introduction efforts at their newest facility in Haifa, Israel."

"We are excited to collaborate with Innoviz to develop and deploy their 3D scanning and sensing solution. Our Optics experts are excited to collaborate with Innoviz to develop and deploy their 3D scanning and sensing solution," said Irvin Stein, Vice President of Jabil Optics. "Combining the strengths of our engineering teams with the ingenuity of Innoviz is exactly the disruptive edge required to execute on key technologies for autonomous driving."

Eric Walz

Originally hailing from New Jersey, Eric is a automotive & technology reporter covering the high-tech industry here in Silicon Valley. He has over 15 years of automotive experience and a bachelors degree in computer science. These skills, combined with technical writing and news reporting, allows him to fully understand and identify new and innovative technologies in the auto industry and beyond. He has worked at Uber on self-driving cars and as a technical writer, helping people to understand and work with technology.