If we want to replace the human driver, vehicles need to see and understand a lot more than they do now. The fact is today’s perception systems aren’t enough. Even the best perception systems on the market miss objects and obstructions in the road — some as big as a semi-truck. That’s why we created Clarity™.

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Current solutions aren’t enough

Lidars do a great job, but they don’t do the whole job. Their range is often limited to ~250 meters. Class 8 trucks need at least 400+ meters to come to a complete stop, safely. Lidar as well as monocular camera-based systems can get confused as to whether they’re seeing a person painted on the side of a truck or an actual person.

Automakers have spent billions of dollars and decades of research to make systems that keep the human driver safe (described as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems or ADAS) and self-driving cars a reality. But many gaps remain. In 2019 in California, nearly 9% of the disengagements by autonomous systems were due to perception system failures.

Enter the Light Clarity platform

Clarity is a camera-based perception platform that’s able to see any 3D structures in the road from 10 centimeters to 1000 meters away — three times the distance of the best-in-class lidar with 20 times the detail. With this type of range, machines are able to perceive depth further than ever before so they can make proactive decisions for passenger safety and convenience. Doing so adds a powerful capability to existing ADAS, such as automatic emergency steering, as well as self-driving vehicles of the future that require sophisticated path planning. Near and long-range depth information is required to make proactive, rather than reactive, decisions as a vehicle’s environment frequently changes. Seeing further can lead to safer and ultimately more efficient vehicles.

There is nothing else like the Clarity platform with its combination of depth range, accuracy, and density per second. It enables a new generation of vehicles that can be made safer, without having to compromise on cost, quality, or reliability. Rather than only minimizing the severity of a collision, having high-fidelity depth allows any vehicle powered by Clarity to increasingly make decisions that can avoid accidents altogether. All while keeping occupants comfortable as well as safe.
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The Clarity platform has been designed to accommodate a range of customer needs: functional, cost, and design-related. It can be configured to optimize for any given driver-assistance and autonomous system, including:

‍Identifying and avoiding obstacles: Every ~30 milliseconds, the Clarity platform turbocharges adaptive suspension systems by providing incredible detail of any road surface near and far. And for distant obstacles in the road or as a vehicle reverses, it enables earlier collision avoidance behavior.

Redefining vehicle-to-driver hand-off time: For every 100 meters of added perception, a vehicle gains an additional four seconds of time to slow down, change lanes, or alert the driver to take over.

Sensing and measuring a parking spot: The Clarity platform can identify open parking spots over 100 meters away from the vehicle thereby allowing a driver to save time, fuel, and frustration as they reach their destination.

L4/L5 autonomous trucking: When installed in semi-trucks, Clarity will provide the range necessary for fuel-efficient route planning as well as bringing a fully-loaded Class-8 truck to a safe stop.
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Light’s Clarity platform uses off-the-shelf, auto-grade cameras sourced from existing automotive supply chains to keep costs low. Customers benefit from the constant innovations in camera technology while Light’s algorithms can be easily updated to take advantage of new enhancements.

To learn more about this breakthrough in perception, request a demo, and sign up for a webinar visit light.co/clarity

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