Veoneer, a Swedish auto technology group, announced signing of a production contract deal with a “world-leading” carmaker.
The firm did not disclose the identity of the automaker but shared that contract it has won is to manufacture a thermal camera for a self-driving vehicles of that leading carmaker.
Veoneer is involved in a business of manufacturing products including vision systems, radars, software for self-driving vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems that are widely expected to be playing a vital role in the development of next generation of cars in the coming decades.
This award of producing a thermal camera is a breakthrough for Veoneer in autonomous vehicle industry, Veoneer CEO Jan Carlson said in a statement.
Given the unique capabilities of sensing the things around it, thermal cameras are critical for enhancement of autonomous vehicle’s safety, Carlson said.
Over the past year, Veoneer saw its shares trending downward as the auto markets around the world slowed down and due to further delays in plans by car makers to manufacture autonomous vehicles for more of the time because of the rising costs as well as technological and regulatory challenges they have been facing going through the development process of those vehicles.
Veoneer said that production of thermal cameras is planned to be started in 2021, while a company spokesman Thomas Jonsson told Reuters that the production contract will be of high technical significance for the company despite the fact that cameras, company will be producing, would remain less in numbers.
It is for the first time, as far as the people know at Veoneer, when a carmaker decided to include thermal cameras in its autonomous vehicles to work as sensor.
Veoneer’s thermal cameras make use of narrow and wide field-of view to enhance the detection of pedestrian, vehicles, motorcycles, animals and other objects to complement the capabilities providing other sensor technologies.