Continental Acquires ASC’s Hi-Res 3D Flash LIDAR Business

Just recently, global automotive supplier Continental has acquired the Hi-Res 3D Flash LIDAR business from Advanced Scientific Concepts, Inc. based in Santa Barbara, California. This state-of-the-art technology will further improve the company’s ADAS product portfolio with a future-orientated solution to add to the group of surrounding sensors required to attain highly and fully automated driving.

One huge advantage of the Hi-Res 3D Flash LIDAR sensor technology is that it offers both real-time machine vision and environmental mapping functions. Through this, there will be more detailed and accurate field of vision around the vehicle, independent of day or night time and robust in tough weather conditions.

To date, Continental works on a family of sensors to address various requirements around the vehicle as well as to enable function optimized mapping and segmentation of the surrounding. Karl Haupt, Executive Vice President, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) Business Unit and Member of the Management Board, Chassis & Safety pision, said that an array of surrounding sensors is required to progress safely to the higher levels of automated driving. He noted that they have strong and proven capabilities with camera and radar as well as data fusion, but it is essential to have Hi-Res 3D Flash LIDAR in their technology portfolio to further reinforce and improve their leadership position in the development of automated driving.

With the closing, Advanced Scientific Concepts employees, mainly engineers, will join the Chassis & Safety pision of Continental as a business segment within the ADAS Business Unit. Arnaud Lagandré is head of the new segment. The company mulls growing to more than 100 engineers in this area of technology in the long run. The two companies agreed not to pulge the price for the acquisition.

Frank Jourdan, Member of the Executive Board of Continental AG and President of the Chassis & Safety pision, said that they continue to invest in research and development for next generation technologies—such as automated driving—that would drive them toward a safer, more efficient and more comfortable future. He noted that as a company, the strategy of Continental is clearly focused on making this type of future technology a reality. “As a company, Continental’s strategy is clearly focused on making this type of future technology a reality. It’s clear to us that automated driving will be a key element in the mobility of the future and therefore the development and enhancement of our advanced driver assistance systems portfolio is the basis.”