Cepton introduces the world's smallest wide-field Lidar sensor

     Cepton introduces Nova, the world's smallest wide-field lidar sensor. Nova is a wide-angle, close-range LiDAR sensor designed to address significant shortcomings in the proximity detection of objects using current sensor technology. Featuring best-in-class high-resolution 3D imaging technology with 90-120° (H) and 60-90° (V) High Field of View (FOV) depending on configuration, Nova sets a global benchmark with its unprecedented combination of compact, FOV coverage and affordability.

     With an angular resolution of up to 0.3° and a maximum range of 30 m, Nova is ideal for automotive advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle (AV) applications such as blind spot detection, small object detection, automatic parking assistance and estimation of available space around the vehicle. For vehicles, multi-radar architectures can be simplified to create virtual safety zones around them while minimizing disruption to the vehicle's design aesthetics.

     Nova is ideal for accurate detection of nearby objects such as children, road objects, road edges, stationary objects, etc. With this capability and ultra-compact design, Nova can support not only ADAS and AV applications, but also automated ground vehicles (AGVs) and smart industrial applications.

     As LiDAR's presence in cars and trucks continues to increase, Cepton has been innovating its technology to meet the stringent requirements of  Oems and Tier 1 manufacturers, while striving to advance liDAR designs to make them easy to integrate into next-generation vehicles. Nova is the latest representative of Cepton's latest liDAR innovations, covering auto-grade reliability, low power consumption (< 3.5W) and high performance are targeted, as well as only a small amount of elegant, minimalist design in the body of the real estate.

     Nova's modular design and easy-to-access components make it highly manufacturable and very cheap to produce in high volumes. Previously, Cepton was one of the first companies in the industry to announce a mass-produced high performance long-range lidar (Vista-X90) priced below $1,000. In keeping with this trend, Nova is the first high-field, close-range lidar with a price tag of less than $100 for high volume production. This meets Cepton's goal of bringing scalable, mass-market liDAR solutions to market that enable the automotive industry to dramatically accelerate innovation in safety and autonomy for the next generation of vehicles.

     "Nova is the industry's first transformative lidar, fundamentally changing the game for near-field sensing," said Dr. Jun Pei, CEO of Cepton. "Right now, consumer cars are limited to technologies that can't achieve true level 3 or level 4 autonomy for the mass market. Radar, camera and ultrasonic sensors suffer from high false alarm and false alarm rates. Rotary Lidar cannot be embedded and is therefore impractical for consumer cars. Close-range flash lidar lacks a wide field of view or does not meet the need to spread power and size requirements around the vehicle. Nova represents a breakthrough liDAR innovation in the automotive industry because it achieves a level of performance unmatched by such a small form element."