Delphi and LiDAR-maker Innoviz partner on self-driving tech

Automotive supply giant Delphi, which recently shifted focus to target autonomous and high-tech solutions more specifically, has signed a new partnership with Innoviz, an Israeli tech company building LiDAR tech for autonomous driving. The team-up includes a new minority investment from Delphi in Innoviz, the full financial details of which haven’t been released.

The commercial partnership with Innoviz includes integration of the latter’s LiDAR sensors into Delphi’s autonomous systems, with the intend of offering a mass commercial offering to the automotive industry that can provide SAE Level 3 and Level 4 self-driving capabilities.

LiDAR’s a key ingredient in most self-driving setups, since it provides extremely accurate, high-detail 3D depth maps of a vehicle’s surroundings. Innoviz has been focused on creating LiDAR that takes up less space than existing solutions, while also coming in at more reasonable price points. Currently shipping industry-leading solutions from other LiDAR suppliers like Velodyne are prohibitively expensive for inclusion in consumer vehicles.

Innoviz has revealed a solid-state LiDAR design it hopes to bring to vehicles as a production sample by early 2019, and it revealed a developer aftermarket version that it’ll ship earlier called InnovizPro to help automakers prepare for its inclusion. Global supplier Magna is also planning on using Innoviz LiDAR in its own autonomous driving systems, the company announced late last year.