Magna and its partner Innoviz Technologies (earlier post) will supply the BMW Group with solid-state LiDAR for upcoming autonomous vehicle production platforms.

The new-business award is one of the first in the auto industry to include solid-state LiDAR for serial production. While Magna has demonstrated via its MAX4 platform the capability to develop a complete autonomous platform (earlier post), it can also support customers by providing various building blocks of the overall system as in this case with BMW.

Recognizing that LiDAR is one of the critical enablers to achieve the desired levels of performance and overall safety, Magna collaborated with Israeli LiDAR provider Innoviz Technologies to integrate automotive-grade, solid-state LiDAR into its autonomous driving platform.

LiDAR, Magna’s ICON RADAR and other sensors and systems within its MAX 4 provide a base platform for OEM products and mobility platforms of the future.

This solid-state high-resolution LiDAR technology generates a 3D point cloud in real time of the vehicle’s surroundings, even in challenging settings such as direct sunlight, varying weather conditions and multi-LiDAR environments. In addition, the solution provides a complete computer vision software stack and algorithms to turn 3D vision into critical driving insights.

The Magna/Innoviz comprehensive sensing solution delivers on critical needs including performance, cost, and compact size.

BMW is setting a high standard in autonomous vehicles development, and their vote of confidence in our LiDAR demonstrates how advanced our technology is. The Innoviz and Magna teams collaborated to meet BMW requirements in quality and validation plans, and functional safety. Automakers have been looking for a LiDAR technology provider to deliver a mass-market solution, and we are proud to see our product coming to series production.

—Omer Keilaf, co-founder and CEO of Innoviz

Magna has been developing and manufacturing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) products for automakers for more than 15 years. In August 2017 it unveiled MAX4, a fully integrated, customizable and scalable platform that can enable up to Level 4 autonomous driving in both urban and highway environments. MAX4 contains the sensing and computing building blocks—including radar, LiDAR, cameras and ultrasonic sensors, as well as an ADAS central computing module—which can be supplied in part or as a whole system to meet customer needs and market readiness.

Magna is an investor in Innoviz. (Earlier post.)