In the race for autonomous driving, Chinese car companies are mostly relying on LiDAR, and innovations related to it are emerging.

GAC Aion, GAC's new energy vehicle brand, said Monday that its models will soon be equipped with Robosense's intelligent zoomable LiDAR, which enables variable resolution and refresh frame rates.

GAC Aion's model to be equipped with zoomable LiDAR-CnEVPost

The LiDAR is equipped with a new two-dimensional MEMS smart chip that enables 0.2°-0.05° of intelligently tunable resolution, the company said. In contrast, mainstream first-generation products use a fixed 0.2° resolution, it says.

GAC Aion's model to be equipped with zoomable LiDAR-CnEVPost

This feature allows it to resemble a high-powered telescope, see clearer and farther than the first-generation product, and accurately capture long-distance cone buckets and bumpy roads, the company says.

GAC Aion's model to be equipped with zoomable LiDAR-CnEVPost

The product also has an intelligent 10-30Hz inverter refresh frame rate, which enables millisecond frame rates for quick recognition of unexpected situations, it says, adding that the mainstream first-generation product uses a fixed 10Hz refresh frame rate.

GAC Aion's model to be equipped with zoomable LiDAR-CnEVPost

It also has a large 120° FOV field of view, 300m ultra-telephoto detection and the world's smallest size of 45x110x108mm, GAC Aion said.

The Aion LX, a production vehicle equipped with this LiDAR, will be released soon, GAC Aion said, without revealing a specific date.

GAC Aion's model to be equipped with zoomable LiDAR-CnEVPost

(Photo source: GAC Aion)