Solid-state lidar developer Quanergy Systems Inc. will soon begin production and delivery of its S3 lidar system for numerous markets with a ground technology commercialization partnership with Sensata Technologies BV. “We believe that 2017 will be the year that lidar demonstrates that it can be an affordable, reliable mass market product,” said Louay Eldada, CEO of Quanergy. “There is high customer demand for lower cost, more reliable high-end sensor systems. The S3 is the only product that can satisfy this demand and deliver true solid-state 3-D sensing at a reasonable price. We’re in a unique position to finally bring this technology to market and enable amazing innovation in self-driving and machine vision applications.” The compact S3 sensor can be concealed into the body of any vehicle, ensuring design aesthetics and aerodynamics. Its ability to perform dependable real-time 3D mapping and object detection, tracking and classification enables autonomous driving. “The high cost and low reliability of lidar systems have been fundamental barriers to the adoption of self-driving vehicles,” said Steve Beringhause, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Sensata Technologies. “Sensata is proud to partner with Quanergy to deliver a groundbreaking automotive-grade product that can enable the next age of transportation. The S3 system fits seamlessly into automotive architectures and we believe that it will be the clear industry leader in cost and reliability.” Quanergy offers lidar sensors and software for the capture and processing of 3D spatial data, object detection, tracking and classification.