Innoviz was awarded a design win at BMW (OTCMKTS:BMWYY) for its self-driving car program for Level 3 capability, which is mostly for highway driving.
[See the following table for more context:]
Level 2Hands off, eyes temporarily offPartly automated Level 3Hands off, eyes offHighly automated Level 4Hands off, mind offFully automated Level 5Passenger autonomousAutonomous
Level 3 is like the “MVP” of autonomous driving. People are already spending a lot of time on the highway, and feeling very passive about driving, which makes this a good application for the technology. A lot of car manufacturers are talking about Level 3 capability -- but there’s a big difference between doing Level 3 at 20km versus 130 km per hour. The requirements of the sensor and reaction time are very different. Innoviz is the only certified automotive-grade high-performance lidar.
The BMW program is expected to launch by the end of 2021. This was the result of hundreds of millions of dollars spent, hundreds of top engineers and tens of millions of kilometers driven for validation. Only selected OEMs are able to go through such a long and rigorous process.