AEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIDR), the global leader in adaptive, high-performance LiDAR solutions, today announced that AEye founder and CTO Luis Dussan has been awarded the 2020 Vision Award by AutoSens. The inaugural award, judged by a panel of esteemed judges from companies including General Motors and Nvidia, recognizes an individual whose progress within the vehicle perception ecosystem is shaping the industry in a big way, and whose impact will last for years to come.

Dussan, whose background is in the military and defense industries, has taken a novel approach to LiDAR sensing. He applied the principles he used designing mission-critical targeting systems for fighter jets to build a perception system for autonomous vehicles that helps them see, classify, and respond to threats in real time. AEye’s adaptive LiDAR system is designed to leverage AI and edge processing to move the complexity from the hardware to the software, enabling the collection of higher quality information with less data, for better, faster, and more accurate perception.

Dussan knew that LiDAR needed to enable functionality that cameras and radar could not – such as tracking small objects and lateral entries in fast moving and dynamic environments. By putting intelligent software on the sensor, he created a system that substantially increases situational awareness and the probability of detection, while reducing false positives without impacting size, weight, power, or cost. It is the first LiDAR platform that is adaptable through software to meet the specific needs of OEM customers.

“I’m honored to accept this award on behalf of the entire team at AEye,” said Dussan. “Our adaptive LiDAR’s unique intelligence and software-configurability have driven critical improvements in performance, vision capabilities, and reliability that were designed to advance vehicle perception and benefit the entire industry. Our system is aimed at solving today’s toughest corner cases, but also provide OEMs a pathway, through software, for the future - with the ability to add features and improve performance over time. This type of flexibility will be a requirement for the systems of tomorrow.”

The team responsible for building this technology includes esteemed scientists and engineers from the defense, telecom, and semiconductor industries leading teams inside world-class organizations, such as NASA, Lockheed, Northrop, Raytheon, GE, the U.S. Air Force, NXP, VLSI, and DARPA. Among them, SVP and Chief Engineer John Stockton, who is responsible for product and future component technologies needed to continuously reduce the cost of high performance LiDAR systems; Chief Scientist Allan Steinhardt (former Chief Scientist at DARPA), who helps design the technology and spearheads the development of AEye’s patent portfolio; VP of Systems Engineering, Phillipe Feru; Sr. Director, James Jung, who heads Development Engineering and MEMS technology; Head of Receivers & Modeling, Max Kim; Head of Electrical Engineering, Rolf Wietelmann; Head of Systems Controller Group, Naveen Reddy; Head of Performance Initiatives Group, Todd Gustavson; Head of Systems Hardware, Igor Polishchuk; Head of Test and Integration Group, Pritesh Solanki; and SVP Abhijit Thatte, who heads Software Engineering and AI.

Together, this team designed and put in place AEye’s novel approach to sensing, which puts intelligence inside the sensor to create the highest performing sensing and perception system for the most challenging situations, designed to ensure the highest levels of safety for autonomous driving.

AutoSens is the world’s leading community for ADAS and autonomous vehicle technology development. Its aim is to connect engineers and scientists from across the globe to accelerate technology development and commercial deployment of automotive safety systems.

About AEye

AEye is the premier provider of intelligent, next generation, adaptive LiDAR for vehicle autonomy, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), and robotic vision applications. AEye’s iDAR™ (Intelligent Detection and Ranging) system leverages biomimicry and principles from automated targeting applications used by the military to scan the environment, intelligently focusing on what matters most, enabling faster, more accurate, and more reliable perception. iDAR is the only software configurable LiDAR with integrated deterministic artificial intelligence, delivering industry-leading performance in range, resolution, and speed. The company was founded in 2013 and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are sometimes accompanied by words such as “believe,” “continue,” “project,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “predict,” “plan,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “outlook,” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends, or that are not statements of historical matters. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections, and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as and must not be relied on by an investor as a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction, or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are very difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from the assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of AEye. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to: (i) the risks that the Company will be unable to deliver world leading performance to its customers as quickly as anticipated, or at all; (ii) the risks that our novel approach to LiDAR sensing will result in a commercial product or be accepted by the market; (iii) the risks that the Company will be unable to successfully leverage AI or edge processing to enable a product capable of collecting higher quality information, with less data, resulting in better, faster, or more accurate perception; (iv) the risks that LiDAR functionality will be superior, actually or as perceived by customers, in the marketplace to that of cameras or radar in tracking objects; (v) the risks that software on the sensor will substantially increase situational awareness and the probability of detection in real world applications; (vi) the risks that our products will not meet the specific needs of our customers; (vii) the risks that our system will not adequately solve the corner cases perceived by our customers; (viii) the risks that the type of flexibility that our system is intended to address will be a requirement of our customers; (ix) the risks that lidar adoption occurs slower than anticipated or fails to occur at all; (x) the risks that AEye’s products will not meet the diverse range of performance and functional requirements of AEye’s target markets and customers; (xi) the risks that AEye’s products will not function as anticipated by AEye or by AEye’s target markets and customers; (xii) the risks that AEye may not be in a position to adequately or timely address either the near or long-term opportunities that may or may not exist in the evolving autonomous transportation industry; (xiii) the risks that laws and regulations are adopted impacting the use of lidar that AEye is unable to comply with, in whole or in part; (xiv) changes in competitive and regulated industries in which AEye operates, variations in operating performance across competitors, and changes in laws and regulations affecting AEye’s business; (xv) the risks that AEye is unable to adequately implement its business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; and (xvi) the risks of downturns and a changing regulatory landscape in the highly competitive and evolving industry in which AEye operates. These risks and uncertainties may be amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused significant economic uncertainty. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the “Risk Factors” section of the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q that AEye filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and other documents filed by AEye or that will be filed by AEye from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made.

Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements; AEye assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. AEye gives no assurance that AEye will achieve any of its expectations.