Volvo’s 360c autonomous vehicle concept pictured here is described as “a holistic view of a future of travel that is autonomous, electric, connected and safe” by the company. It focuses on four potential uses of self-driving vehicles – as a sleeping environment, mobile office, living room and entertainment space. image : Volvo

Volvo and Luminar, a San Francisco based startup led by Thiel Fellow Austin Russell working on development of core sensing technology for autonomous vehicles teamed up to demonstrate what they dub as “the most advanced LiDAR sensor and perception capabilities to date” at the Automobility LA trade show that held late last month.

The development of LiDAR technology that make use of pulsed laser signals to detect objects is a key feature for the creating of safe autonomous cars. It allows self-driving vehicles to find their way safely in complex traffic environments and at higher speeds by providing these vehicles with well-grounded long-range perception capabilities.

image : Volvo/Luminar

Development of these long-range perception capabilities is one of a lot of ways which auto manufacturers adapt to cater for safe introduction of fully self-driving vehicles. Luminar is developing new perception capabilities in partnership with Volvo to make it possible to detect human poses including individual limbs such as legs and arms, and also objects at a range of up to 250 meters, more than the range of current available LiDARs.

Volvo invested in Luminar earlier this year and deepened its collaboration with the Silicon Valley startup that focused on development and testing of their sensing technology on Volvo cars. It marked as the first of Luminar’s partners to wholly leverage its expanded perception development platform.

image : Volvo/Luminar

“Autonomous technology will take driving safely to a new level, beyond human limitations. This promise to improve safety is why Volvo Cars wants to be a leader in autonomous drive. Ultimately, the technology will also create new benefits for our customers and society as a whole,” senior vice president for research and development at Volvo Henrik Green said. “Luminar shares our ambition in making those benefits a reality and this new perception technology is an important next step in that process.”

“The Volvo Cars R&D team is moving at an impressive pace to solve some of the most advanced problems in the development of autonomous driving,” Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell also added “As we’ve scaled up, they’ve remained on the forefront of developing an autonomous system to take the driver out of the loop – ultimately enabling deployment in real consumer vehicles.”

image : Volvo/Luminar

image : Volvo/Luminar

At this year’s Automobility LA event which led from November 26-29, Volvo brought a special virtual reality station demonstrating its 360c self-driving concept and also its broader vision of autonomous travel which Luminar is helping to develop. The video below demonstrates that:

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