Article by: Dr. Kyle Wong – Project Director of ACH Worldwide Ltd.
We got a chance to meet global leading Israeli 3D Vision technology start-ups through participating in the Smart Mobility Summit 2019. The summit is hosted by Israel’s Prime Minister and provided a venue for a dialogue about the world’s most forward-thinking approaches to transportation, cutting edge technologies and future business models, and to promote Israel’s ambitious goal of reducing 60% of the country’s oil consumption by 2025.
The three major themes of the summit are e-mobility, which is the usage of electric vehicles to cut dozen emission. The use of the electric engine is no longer confined to cars. At the summit, we also see electric scooters (scooters are very popular in Israel), electric motorbikes and also trucks. One advantage of Israel is the abundance of sunlight. So it is a high priority of Israel to move away from fossil fuel.
Another theme is mobility as a service (MaaS). The advance in driverless car technology will render vehicle ownership obsolete. One of the things we learn in car ownership is that they are under-utilized. Many of the car owners go to work on public transportation and only use their cars occasionally on weekends. The utilization is low. What if we can share cars, instead of owning them. So an app will find the closest car in our neighbourhood and the car will pick us up and bring us to our destinations. Through autonomous driving technology, those days are not too far away. Many start-ups are working in building the infrastructure of MaaS such as ride-sharing apps and AI engines to optimize the movement of autonomous vehicles.
True autonomous driving maybe years ago. But a smart city is already here. In a smart city all aspects of transportation should be monitored, traffic congestions mitigated and violations reported and handled promptly. It involves the use of cameras to monitor traffic patterns and violations. The building of a smart transportation network is the third theme of the summit. Start-ups have demonstrated AI systems to regulate traffic and to detect violations.
To allow for MaaS and smart city, sensors need to be placed on vehicles and roads. So many exhibitors are LIDAR manufacturers. One company which show huge promise in this area is Newsight Imaging (NSI). NSI builds image sensors that can sense the world in 3D. A game-changer in vision solutions for the automotive industry, drones, robotics, augmented and virtual reality applications, mobile smartphone market and industry 4.0. The sensor is an integral part of the Lidar technology which is used in driverless cars and robotics to detect distance and 3D mapping.
Newsight innovative chip is ideal for applications that require the following characteristics:
- Cost-effectiveness – ideal solution for high volume and competitive markets
- Low power consumption – suitable for rechargeable and battery-operated products
- High performance – excellent for the application that requires intensive algorithms and calculations
- Analog and digital integration – non-disruptive coexistence
In fact, NSI announced in June the signing of a collaboration agreement with ZKW Group, a leading premium lighting systems and electronics specialist, headquartered in Wiesel burg Austria. ZKW’s affiliation with LG gives the company access to resources and key technologies to develop intelligent lighting for the future and autonomous driving. NSI has a bright future ahead.
ACH Worldwide 