[BahamaTodd]

General Motors Selects Cepton To Supply Lidar For 2023 Production

San Jose-based Cepton is one of the less talked about lidar vendors in the auto industry today, but as part of an SEC filing today for its plan to go public through a SPAC merger with Growth Capital Acquisition Corp., it has revealed its first major production customer. Beginning in 2023, General Motors GM is planning to start installing Cepton-based lidar sensors in as many as nine different models.

GM is likely to be using the Cepton lidar to both enhance ADAS capabilities for automatic emergency braking, pedestrian detection and also to enable its upcoming Ultra Cruise system. GM hasn’t revealed any details about Ultra Cruise capabilities, but it is expected to be a so-called level 3 (L3) system that enables a vehicle to drive in the lane and follow other vehicles at a safe distance without the driver having to continuously supervise as they do with current hands-free L2 systems like Super Cruise.

General Motors Selects Cepton To Supply Lidar For 2023 Production

Lidar developer Cepton is going public through a SPAC merger valued at $1.5 billion and in its SEC filing revealed that its technology has been selected by GM.

www.forbes.com

 

[BahamaTodd]

Here is Cepton's announcement from July announcing a new agreement with a "Detroit-based global automotive OEM"

Cepton secures industry’s largest ADAS lidar series production win with leading Detroit-based global automotive OEM | Automotive World

Cepton expected to be the first lidar company in the world to go mass-market across multiple vehicle platforms by 2023

www.automotiveworld.com

The multiple OEM vehicle models already awarded as part of this series production program makes this win the largest in the industry to-date. The deployment of Cepton lidars in those vehicle models, as well as anticipated models to be added in the coming years at the Detroit-based OEM, is expected to significantly exceed that in any of the other publicly announced lidar series production programs. This is a testament to Cepton’s patented MMT® lidars, which utilize a rotation-free, mirrorless and frictionless technology that balances outstanding performance, high reliability and low cost, which are the three key factors integral to delivering mass-market ADAS lidar. Cepton’s MMT® lidars also feature a superior combination of compact size and low power consumption, which maximizes flexibility for vehicle integration, enabling various placement options such as in the fascia, in headlamps, on the roof and behind windshields. Cepton’s Vista®-X90 lidar consequently enables seamless and innovative vehicle-lidar integration.

 

[BahamaTodd]

I assume Hummer will be one of the nine models that will get this option which will most likely be GM's level 3 autonomous Ultra Cruise system.

 

[BahamaTodd]

One of the major issues with lidar technology was the cost and size of the equipment. This looks very promising and cost effective.

 

[Tom E-Tron]

One of the major issues with lidar technology was the cost and size of the equipment. This looks very promising and cost effective.

The consumer vehicle in 2023 would be the Cadillac Celestiq, this will take until well past mid decade to filter down to BT1 vehicles for level 3.

Just like GM rolled out supercruise very slowly onto only 1 limited production model, UltraCruise will be the same, and GM will be "ultra" careful with that technology.