SAN FRANCISCO: Apple Inc has held talks with at least four companies as possible suppliers for next-generation lidar sensors in self-driving cars, evaluating the companies' technology while also still working on its own lidar unit, three people familiar with the discussions said.
Current lidar systems, including units from Velodyne Inc mounted on Apple's fleet of self-driving test vehicles, use laser light pulses to render precise images of the environment around the car. But the systems can cost US$100,000 and use mechanical parts to sweep the laser scanners across the road.
But what is clear from Apple's interest in cheaper lidar systems is that it wants to control the"perception stack" of sensors, computers and software to drive an autonomous vehicle, regardless of who makes the vehicle, another person familiar with the talks said. The three people familiar with the talks declined to be identified because the discussions are not public.
That has the potential to lower prices from the many thousands to the hundreds of dollars as the sensors are produced in larger numbers, similar to chips in phones and other devices. Apple also wants sensors that can see several hundred meters down the road.