This $200 Tech Might Finally Put Driverless Cars in Our Driveways

We all know those spinning lidar gizmos perched atop Waymo driverless taxis are too expensive for civilian use by several orders of magnitude. Also, way too ugly. At the IAA Munich auto show, supplier MicroVision introduced its Movia S corner lidar sensor aimed at dropping the price point (and ugh factor) enough to bring widespread adoption.

One Bite at a Time

That’s how you eat an elephant, and it’s the core tenet of this democratization effort: Reduce the workload of the long-range lidar unit, by letting two smaller corner lidar units cover the edges of the field of view. MicroVision calls this Tri-Lidar Architecture, and it allows the long-range lidar to narrow its focus, increasing the resolution a bit and extending its useful range.

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Movia S Corner Lidars

These new units use 100 percent solid state “sequential flash” technology—no moving mirrors, nothing to fail or suffer from onboard vibration, so they’re robust. Their field of view is selectable between 60 and 180 degrees. This makes them great for a lot of industrial robotic uses, which will help the units scale to mass volume. When used in Tri-Lidar as a corner sensor, they cover 90-100 degrees. But that can be widened to 180 degrees for full side coverage in a 360-degree application.

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Small and Simple

Another cost-reduction element: The move away from trying to identify some or all objects within the silicon of the sensor device and then sending that processed information to the central perception engine, toward having every sensor continuously send all its raw data over the high-speed network to the (now more powerful) central computer for a more complete object-detection analysis, now that network communications speed and processing cap. Movia S’ small size makes it easy to integrate discretely into bumpers, headlamps or trim.

Range

A more narrowly focused MicroVision Mavin long-range lidar can now detect the 15-percent reflective object with 90 percent reliability at 720 feet, with the corner units reaching out 100-160 feet.

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Mix and Match

Knowing every automaker has its favorite suppliers, the MicroVision software stack can be made to function with any other lidar-supplier’s long-range lidar and on most any chipmaker’s silicon.

Current $200-$300 Pricing to Drop

The Movia S corner units are expected to start out at about $200 when they hit mass production in 2028, with the simplified Mavin long-range device (sized mount inside the top center of the windshield) ringing in at $300, but MicroVision has a roadmap to bring that down in successive generations.