Aeva and Nikon bring 4D LiDAR to industrial automation and metrology markets

Aeva, a specialist in next-generation sensing and perception systems, announced a strategic collaboration with Nikon, a global manufacturer and supplier of metrology and inspection equipment for the industrial automation and metrology markets.

The companies will focus on bringing Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) 4D LiDAR with unique micron-level measurement capability to high precision industrial automation and metrology applications.

Nikon is a leading supplier to the growing $10 billion industrial automation and metrology markets, with revenues of approximately $600 million including other small businesses within the segment and leading customers including major global automotive vehicle OEMs, such as BMW, Stellantis and top aerospace manufacturers, among others.

The goal of the partnership is to develop next-generation industrial solutions using Aeva’s unique, industry-first 4D LiDAR on chip technology. By leveraging Nikon’s market-leading position in laser radar technology and excellence in industrial precision, Aeva and Nikon expect to accelerate adoption of joint products in industrial automation, metrology and manufacturing applications.

“We are delighted with the opportunity to use Aeva’s ground-breaking technology to jointly bring to market metrology solutions that provide our industrial customers with unmatched functionality, combining higher accuracy that is scalable, lower cost, more compact and provides superior performance than current solutions,” said Tadashi Nakayama, CEO of Nikon Metrology, General Manager of Industrial Metrology Business Unit and Corporate Vice President at Nikon.

“This marks a milestone for Aeva’s expansion strategy beyond autonomous driving applications. We’re excited to work closely with a leader like Nikon in an established market with massive growth potential as we accelerate our expansion into industrial applications, targeting product release in 2025,” said Soroush Salehian, Co-Founder and CEO at Aeva. “By leveraging our common core LiDAR chip architecture that we’ve already developed for automotive applications, we can bring industry leading costs to volume scale, which we believe has the potential to upend the growing industrial automation industry.”

“Our 4D LiDAR on chip technology has the capability to provide unparalleled performance through proprietary software on existing hardware,” said Mina Rezk, Co-Founder and CTO at Aeva. “This solution will achieve measurements with micron-level accuracy and will unlock entirely new applications beyond autonomous driving. Nikon is a world leader when it comes to delivering high precision industrial solutions of the highest quality, and we’re thrilled to collaborate to bring our unique technology to industrial applications.”