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Stellantis buys stake in optical radar start-up SteerLight
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PARIS (Reuters) – European carmaker Stellantis announced on Wednesday that it was acquiring a stake in optical radar start-up SteerLight as it seeks to strengthen its market position and secure access to crucial sensors for autonomous driving. The move is aimed at diversifying supply of light detect...
PARIS (Reuters) – European carmaker Stellantis announced on Wednesday that it was acquiring a stake in optical radar start-up SteerLight as it seeks to strengthen its market position and secure access to crucial sensors for autonomous driving. The move is aimed at diversifying supply of light detection and ranging, or lidar, and speeding up the development of components for its future electric fleet, Stellantis, the producer of Fiat, Peugeot and Citroen cars among other brands, said. The amount of the investment, made through Stellantis Ventures, was not disclosed.
SteerLight, a company born out France’s public micro and nanotechnology research centre CEA-Leti based in Grenoble, claims its lidar solutions are more compact and less expensive to manufacture than competing products.
“The system is robust (no moving parts) and compact, maximizing flexibility for vehicle engineers. It overcomes challenges of today’s Lidar technology for vehicles – component size and high cost”, Stellantis said.
SteerLight also announced the arrival of two other investors, Quantonation fund and Italian venture fund Liftt.
(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume, writing by Tassilo Hummel, editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten)
Lidar technology stands for Light Detection and Ranging. It uses laser light to measure distances and create high-resolution maps, crucial for autonomous vehicles.
Autonomous driving refers to vehicles that can navigate and operate without human intervention, using various technologies including sensors and artificial intelligence.
An investment stake refers to the ownership interest or share that an individual or entity holds in a company or project, often represented as a percentage.
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