DVN-L Team Profile: Eric Amiot, Head of DVN-Lidar

Eric Amiot has an electronics engineering degree from the University of Supelec, Paris. He has long experience in the high-tech field and business development for ADAS products (radar, camera, and lidar). He started in a radar startup, and has been working for 25 years in the automotive industry at Valeo.

Amiot joined the DVN organization at the end of 2022 to support and accelerate lidar-related activities. Today we bring you this interview to get his feedback about 2023 activities and thoughts for 2024.

Q: How has been your experience so far with DVN-Lidar?

Eric Amiot: This was the second year of activity of DVN-Lidar, and my first year as manager. The Lidar Conference was for me the key event to get a deep understanding of the community and its expectations.

We have a strong community because we have a clear focus. With DVN-Lidar you get a clear understanding of the market, the technologies, the ecosystem. Our conference provides a unique occasion to gather all the experts and players on the same place, so you can get answers to your questions!

And we can see the impact of the consolidation of the Lidar industry. Some members left (startups closing or companies focusing on industrial applications), replaced by big players who will be part of the core business—like Mobileye, Sony, AGC Wideye, and more.

Q: What kind of feedback did you hear about the 2023 Lidar Conference?

E.A: I was pleased to get many positive comments at the conference; here are some examples:

“Well curated, well executed, of very high quality, and, most importantly, truly beneficial to all the participants. I liked the format” (Olga Raz, Optica—Director of Technology for Optics and Optical Systems)

“First time I attend. Best ADAS event I know. High Added Value, with a clear and strong focus (Lidar), which is almost never the case in other events. I will promote the event”. (Benazouz Bradai, Valeo—AD Innovation Director)

“It was a great conference and a good opportunity to connect with tier 1s and OEMs in the ADAS space” (Bob in den Bosch, Hesai—VP Global sales)

“Very good event, with the right size and people”. (Heiko Leipin, Continental—Lidar expert)

“Much better compared to other events like EAC in China which is more an exhibition” (Olaf Hug, Elmos Mechaless—Product Segment Manager)

Q: What were some of the big DVN-L achievements in 2023?

E.A.: The interactive working groups (Deep Dive Workshops) have been very usefull to bring clarity regarding the current lidar performance in bad weather conditions (Deep Dive1), the expected requirements for short-range lidars (Deep Dive 2), and the maturity of FMCW Lidar (Deep Dive 3).

At the Lidar Conference, we saw a clear breakthrough in vehicle integration and strong growth on the Chinese Market, based on L²⁺ ADAS applications, with a few suppliers reaching a volume of 50,000 sensors a month, which allows a full automation of the manufacturing process.

Q: How do you see the lidar market evolving?

E.A: The lidar market is clearly taking off with the Chinese OEMs and we should see Polestar and Daimler also start shipping in 2024. But there will be continued consolidation among the EU and US players—especially in Germany, with some of the big tier-1s scaling back activities for now (for example ZF terminated their autonomous shuttle project, and after Bosch, Continental will stop their partnership with Aeye.)

The shared mobility market is also slowing down in EU & USA. It was once a high priority for automakers, but not anymore. In 2022, VW’s WeShare sold to Miles. Renault Mobilize pulled the plug on their Paris car share operation, Zity by Mobilize, because of “factors external to the company such as significant damages repeatedly suffered by the fleet.” The last big car share player is Free2Move, owned by Stellantis, who recently bought Share Now (a merger between Mercedes’ Car2Go and BMW’s DriveNow). Share Now was losing the two German makers around €100m per year. And GM-Cruise recently lost their license in California and pulled their whole fleet off the road, and the regulators are adding more constraints to the deployment of robotaxis.

There are also possible impacts of the US restrictions applied to Chinese tech companies. The Pentagon has just added Hesai to the list. If so, it might get complicated to have global suppliers.

Q: What will change at DVN-Lidar in 2024?

E.A.: There will be 4 innovations in 2024:

DVN-Lidar will start activities in China: it is important for us to be present in the biggest lidar market, so we signed a partnership with Enmore to co-host the EAC lidar event in Suzhou. EAC, with 150 exhibitors and 1000+ attendees, is the largest auto electronics exhibition in China, including a big hall dedicated to lidars. DVN-Lidar will bring our expertise to build the program of the conference. DVN-Lidar Gold Members get 2 free tickets. It will also be possible to book an expo booth for EAC on the DVN website.
We will expand the scope of the Lidar Conference, with a session dedicated to IR cameras. We believe this technology, like lidar, will have a specific role to improve the ODD and safety of automotive detection systems for AVs. The two technologies will be complementary to achieve a reliability of 99.99999 per cent that pure vision systems and AI cannot guarantee.
DVN-Lidar will be involved in the realization of standards and technical studies related to lidar performance; we have started a joint project with FKA regarding lidar performance in adverse conditions, to define standards and tests and assess the risk of interference between automotive lidars. The final review should happen on 18 November, before the opening the Lidar Conference 2024, and DVN-Lidar will publish a report regarding lidar interference risk management.
The DVN-L Newsletter has been restricted to DVN-Lidar members, starting from January of this year. The DVN lighting community doesn’t have access anymore by default; companies still interested must send us a specific request.