Exclusive: Bendix and Aeva collaborate on 4D LiDAR for advanced truck safety systems

“This collaboration with Bendix brings Aeva’s 4D LiDAR into one of the most impactful commercial vehicle safety markets in North America and is an indication of 4D LiDAR’s maturity and flexibility for high-volume active safety applications beyond autonomy,” said Soroush Salehian, co-founder and CEO of Aeva, in a news release.

The partnership is a shift in ADAS technology for commercial vehicles. Current collision mitigation systems rely primarily on radar and camera technology, which can face limitations in challenging conditions like nighttime driving or adverse weather. Aeva’s 4D LiDAR technology measures both distance and velocity, potentially offering superior detection capabilities in these scenarios.

“We see Aeva’s 4D LiDAR as an enabling technology offering the long-range performance, high resolution, and instant velocity data we believe is needed to expand the capabilities of our future systems, particularly for challenging scenarios like pedestrian detection and nighttime operation,” said Mike Tober, chief technology officer of Bendix.

The collaboration specifically targets upcoming safety requirements for commercial vehicles in North America, including Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking (PAEB).

Unlike passenger vehicles, commercial trucks present unique safety challenges due to their size and momentum. As Salehian noted in an interview with FreightWaves, the focus for truck safety systems is often on early detection to enable gradual braking rather than sudden swerving maneuvers that could destabilize the vehicle.

Another component of the partnership involves Aeva’s “unified perception platform,” which allows the same core hardware to be used across different applications, from full autonomy to active safety systems. This approach aims to make LiDAR technology cost-effective enough for high-volume ADAS applications.

“For us, because we have been developing this scalable, what we call unified perception platform, we’re able to use the same core hardware and software, modify the software alone, but the hardware remains the same,” Salehian explained. 

This approach allows for processing perception tasks directly on the sensor itself, reducing overall system complexity and cost.

In the LiDAR space, order size matters and a modest adoption across commercial truck fleets could drive significant sensor volume, as each truck may require multiple sensors for full coverage. A fleet of 10,000-15,000 trucks could potentially utilize 100,000 sensors, creating economies of scale that further reduce costs, a common challenge for LiDAR compared to radar and cameras.

The partnership complements Aeva’s existing relationship with Daimler Truck, which recently made a non-dilutive investment in the company. As part of its growth strategy, Aeva is expanding production capacity to 200,000 units annually at a new USMCA-compliant North American manufacturing facility.