Self-driving company cuts lidar division, eliminates 100 jobs

Israeli autonomous driving tech company Mobileye will stop developing its own lidar.

The move will mean the loss of around 100 jobs by the end of the year.

The decision was revealed in a statement from the Jerusalem-based company, which confirmed: “Mobileye has chosen to end the internal development of next-generation frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) lidars for use in autonomous and highly automated driving systems.

“As part of our regular review of the long-term technology roadmap, we now believe that the availability of next-generation FMCW lidar is less essential to our roadmap for eyes-off systems. 

“This decision was based on a variety of factors, including substantial progress on our EyeQ6-based computer vision perception, increased clarity on the performance of our internally developed imaging radar, and continued better-than-expected cost reductions in third-party time-of-flight lidar units.”

Lidar is sensing tech that uses laser pulses to build a 3D environment in front of a vehicle, allowing it to detect objects ahead, in doing so facilitating driver assistance features or autonomous functionality.

The use of lidar in autonomous driving solutions has become a polarizing issue in recent years. One high-profile skeptic has been Elon Musk, who has opted not to use the sensors on production Teslas. At various points he has dismissed the tech as a “fool’s errand,” “stupid, expensive and unnecessary” and a “crutch” for autonomous vehicle makers.

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