Quanergy Systems announced Tuesday that it will begin production and delivery of its S3 LiDAR system for numerous markets this year. The S3 is an automotive-grade solid state LiDAR system, and advanced capabilities in terms of cost, capability, and reliability.

The manufacturing and commercial availability of S3 marks a critical step in accelerating innovation in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle (AV) systems. 80 percent of transportation accidents are potentially avoidable with the integration of affordable LiDAR sensor solutions.

The commercial availability of S3 LiDAR will also advance application development in areas as diverse as industrial automation, robotics, drones, security, smart home, and Internet of Things (IoT).

Over the course of last year, the company has made progress in partnerships and product development. Quanergy has entered into a commercialization partnership with Sensata Technologies for the ground transportation space, and a contract manufacturing partnership with Flex for all other markets, to bring this technology to market.

The compact S3 sensor can be concealed into the body of any vehicle, ensuring uncompromised design aesthetics and aerodynamics. Its ability to perform dependable real-time 3D mapping and object detection, tracking and classification, enables autonomous driving.

“We believe that 2017 will be the year that LiDAR demonstrates that it can be an affordable, reliable mass market product,” said Dr. Louay Eldada, Chief Executive Officer, Quanergy. “There is high customer demand for lower cost, more reliable high-end sensor systems. The S3 is the only product that can satisfy this demand and deliver true solid state 3D sensing at a reasonable price. We’re in a unique position to finally bring this technology to market, and enable amazing innovation in self-driving and machine vision applications.”

“The high cost and low reliability of LiDAR systems have been fundamental barriers to the adoption of self-driving vehicles,” said Steve Beringhause, executive vice president and chief technology officer, Sensata Technologies. “Sensata is proud to partner with Quanergy to deliver a groundbreaking automotive-grade product that can enable the next age of transportation. The S3 system fits seamlessly into automotive architectures and we believe that it will be the clear industry leader in cost and reliability.”

Quanergy will demonstrate its sensor and 3D smart sensing solutions at the ongoing 2017 CES trade show in the north hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

In August, Quanergy announced the acquisition of OTUS People Tracker software from Raytheon BBN Technologies. The software complements Quanergy’s existing software portfolio and, when used with Quanergy’s LiDAR sensors, creates an integrated hardware and software solution for advanced people detection and tracking applications within the security and autonomous driving markets.

OTUS uses sophisticated human perception algorithms to identify and track people for safety and security in crowded environments at ranges exceeding 100 meters when used with Quanergy LiDAR sensors.

The system features segmentation techniques identifying humans, background extraction, object clustering, sophisticated merge and split algorithms, persistent tracking algorithms, and other advanced features supporting robust crowd control.

Support for multiple zones of interest is included, allowing users fine control over active monitoring. With the acquisition, Quanergy is offering the most intelligent and complete solution to track people in 3D and in real-time over large spaces.

The combined solution has advantages over camera systems including the ability to work in any weather or lighting conditions with fewer false alarms, along with the reduction of equipment and labor costs.