General Motors has acquired Strobe, a lidar startup
Lidar—short for light radar—is widely seen as a key sensor technology for self-driving cars. By sending out laser pulses and measuring how long it takes for them to bounce back, lidar builds a detailed 3-D map of a car's surroundings.
The first generation of automotive lidar sits on top of the car, spinning around to collect a panoramic 360-degree view of the vehicle's surroundings. These mechanical systems have worked well enough for building self-driving car prototypes, but their complexity makes it hard to achieve the low cost and durability required for the mass market.
Strobe is one of many startups that has been trying to develop re-designed lidars that are cheap and durable enough for mainstream commercial use. Strobe hasn't revealed how its technology works, but we can make an educated guess by looking at the academic research of Strobe board member John Bowers. Bowers is a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and he has spent years researching how to pack the key elements of a lidar sensor onto a silicon chip.
Two papers in particular provide an in-depth look at how to build lidar for the mass market. The first, published in 2015, explains how to build a laser capable of being aimed in two dimensions without any moving parts. The second, published last year, provides an overview of how to combine this technique with others to build a "lidar on a chip"—a key step toward building lidars that cost hundreds of dollars rather than thousands.
