Velodyne Lidar’s Sponsorship of Autonomous Vehicle Competition in China Advances Research and Development of Self-Driving Cars

At the 10th China Intelligent Vehicles Future Challenge (IVFC), Velodyne
Lidar, Inc. sensors played a prominent role in enabling self-driving
vehicles from multiple teams to navigate real and complex road traffic
environments. As an IVFC sponsor, Velodyne had its industry-leading
lidar sensors on 20 of the 27 participating teams, including the
competition’s winner, at the longest-running and most authoritative
autonomous vehicle (AV) contest in China.

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At the 10th China Intelligent Vehicles Future Challenge (IVFC), Velodyne Lidar sensors played a prominent role in enabling self-driving vehicles from multiple teams. (Photo: Business Wire)

The IVFC, which took place in Changshu, Suzhou, China in November 2018,
attracted a diverse group of teams looking to showcase their latest
developments in AV technology. In addition to teams from university
research institutes, innovative startup companies and vehicle
manufacturers engaged in developing driverless cars participated in the
competition. The challenge was hosted by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China and organized by the Changshu Municipal People’s
Government.

The challenge included both real-road and offline testing of
environmental perception. In the real-road test, the self-driving
vehicles competed on urban roads, suburban roads, and elevated
expressways. Vehicles navigated dense human-driving traffic flow and
various adversarial conditions like GPS-signal loss, road construction,
crossing pedestrians, and heavy rain.

The IVFC winner was the “Pioneer” team from the Institute of Artificial
Intelligence and Robotics, Xi’an Jiaotong University and Sunny Optical
Technology Co., Ltd., which was equipped with one Velodyne Ultra Puck™
and two Velodyne Puck™ sensors. Velodyne will award the winners with one
Velodyne HDL-64E and two Velodyne Puck™ sensors for future AV
development.

“The IVFC provides an excellent opportunity for our next-generation
scientists and engineers to strengthen their research and development
abilities in the field of autonomous vehicles and build new cooperative
relationships with colleagues from throughout China,” said Dr. Chi
Zhang, Xi’an Jiaotong University, who was a referee in the 10th IVFC.
“This competition also involves instrumental verification for advancing
our AV industry and having Velodyne, the lidar market leader,
participate brings invaluable expertise and experience to this learning
environment.”

“The Intelligent Vehicles Future Challenge has long had a leading role
in promoting innovation and practical application of autonomous vehicle
technology in China,” said Wei Weng, Executive Director APAC, Velodyne
Lidar. “Velodyne feels privileged to work closely with the prestigious
government, academic, business, and research organizations involved in
the IVFC to advance the research and development skills of these
creative engineers so they can contribute to accelerating the growth of
the AV industry.”

About Velodyne Lidar

Velodyne provides the smartest, most powerful lidar solutions for
autonomy and driver assistance. Founded in 1983 and headquartered in San
Jose, Calif., Velodyne is known worldwide for its portfolio of
breakthrough lidar sensor technologies. In 2005, Velodyne’s Founder and
CEO, David Hall, invented real-time surround view lidar systems,
revolutionizing perception and autonomy for automotive, new mobility,
mapping, robotics, and security. Velodyne’s high-performance product
line includes a broad range of sensing solutions, including the
cost-effective Puck™, the versatile Ultra Puck™, the perfect for L4-L5
autonomy Alpha Puck™, the ultra-wide angle VelaDome™, the ADAS-optimized
Velarray™, and the groundbreaking software for driver assistance, Vella™.

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