Velodyne’s LiDAR System for Autonomous Driving

This Autobytel video is an overview of the LiDAR Laser System for Autonomous Driving, designed by Velodyne and introduced at the 2014 North American International Auto show in Detroit. Wolfgang Juchmann, Ph. D., is the Director of Sales & Marketing for Velodyne, and he gave Autobytel an explanation of how the Velodyne LiDAR system works. Autonomous driving means that the car is able to drive itself, or that it’s able to provide a lot of assistance to the car’s human driver. The Velodyne system has been implemented in a Ford Fusion Hybrid that was on display at the Detroit Auto Show. This car’s used specifically for research purposes, since the autonomous driving system is not yet ready for prime time. Velodyne’s LiDAR system is comprised of four HDL-32E LiDAR sensors that are mounted on the top of the car, which take three-dimensional measurements twenty times per second. The sensors have a range of about 100 meters, which is sufficient to provide a 360-degree scan of the area around the car. Together, the sensors generate 700,000 data points, and they feed this information into the car’s computer, where a real-time image is compiled of the environment surrounding the car. This image is updated constantly since the sensors are always streaming new information. Velodyne provided a laptop and monitors at the auto show to demonstrate, in real time, how the sensors were working on the Ford Fusion research vehicle.