TriEye, an Israeli startup company specialising in infrared sensor technology is collaborating with Porsche to develop its autonomous driving systems.
The plan is to improve the company’s cars’ ability to see, adding to its Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).
Radar, lidar and cameras make for an adequate sensory arsenal most of the time. However, the capability is far from perfect in the dark and in poor weather. Infrared systems will be able to help with a car’s awareness of its surroundings when visibility is low.
Porsche wants to use a development of TriEye’s CMOS-based short wave infrared camera to fortify ADAS systems for when the going gets gloomy, dark or rainy.
“Our collaboration with Porsche has been exceptional from day one and we look forward to growing this potential,” said Avi Bakal, CEO and co-founder of TriEye.
“The fact that Porsche, a leading car manufacturer, has decided to invest in TriEye and evaluate TriEye’s CMOS-based SWIR camera to help further improve Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) is a significant vote of confidence in our technology.”
As for what cars we’ll be seeing these new systems in – it’s hard to say, though it’s fairly easy to determine that Porsche is going after Tesla’s Autopilot capability.
Porsche’s counter attack on Tesla began with the release of the Taycan electric super-saloon, and will continue with its electric-powered Model Y-rivalling Macan replacement.
In terms of seeing this tech appear in the short term, it could appear in ADAS systems on current models, improving emergency braking, assisted cruise control and lane-keep systems.
