Focus on integration of Lidar and AI functions for autonomous operation applications in automotive and smart city markets

EL DORADO HILLS, Calif., September 23, 2021–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Blaize® today announced a strategic cooperation agreement with Lidar solutions leader LeiShen, for in-depth cooperation on the integration of Lidar and AI functions in intelligence applications for autonomous operation across a range of automotive and smart city markets in China. As part of the agreement, Blaize and LeiShen are building a sensor fusion solution combining LeiShen Lidar technology with AI processing on the Blaize Pathfinder P1600 SOM embedded AI accelerator.

“LeiShen is committed to making driving safer, robots smarter and life better, with advanced, stable and reliable Lidar sensing technology,” said Hu Xiaobo, founder and CEO of LeiShen Intelligence. “The cooperation with Blaize will not only help customers make better use of Lidar, but also enable more safe, reliable and powerful intelligent sensing applications for autonomous driving and smart city projects.”

“LeiShen innovative intelligent Lidar sensing technology, and Blaize products built on our Graph Streaming Processor® (GSP®) architecture are an ideal combination to enable safer and more reliable autonomous operation,” said Dinakar Munagala, CEO and Co-founder, Blaize. “We look forward to working with LeiShen as we serve the market providing better optimized, efficient and economic solutions for electrification, vehicle safety, infotainment, and other intelligence applications.”

The Blaize GSP architecture enables concurrent execution of multiple neural networks and entire workflows on a single system, uniquely enabling end-to-end applications to be built integrating non-neural network functions such as Image Signal Processing and Lidar with neural network functions.

LeiShen has profound Lidar research and development strength. It is the only Lidar company that has mastered the four ranging principles of time flight method, triangulation method, phase method and FMCW at the same time, and independently developed 1550nm fiber laser and its core components. In April 2021, LeiShen launched the second hybrid solid-state Lidar in the world and the first one officially certified by vehicle regulations in China Up to CH32. As well, LeiShen launched the high-profile 128 wire vehicle gauge hybrid solid-state lidar ch128x1.

Blaize and LeiShen will jointly promote autonomous driving projects and smart city projects based on Lidar technology. The Blaize Pathfinder P1600 AI accelerator integrated into LeiShen advanced auto grade Lidar can process LIDAR point cloud data and related algorithms more efficiently. With the built-in optimized sensor fusion algorithm, Lidar can directly output the target data results, providing powerful sensor fusion solutions to autonomous driving and smart city projects.