Two former Apple insiders are building a laser technology startup to fuel the electric car boom
Tue, January 5, 2021, 11:11 AM PST
Aeva co-founder and CEO Soroush Salehian — who spent several years at Apple developing the iPhone, Apple Watch and iPod — won’t say if the tech giant is working on an electric car with autonomous technology as
many have speculated in recent weeks.
But what he can proclaim confidently, is that four-year-old lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) play Aeva — which focuses on what Salehian calls 4D lidar — is primed to be the dominant name in the auto industry’s push toward autonomous cars. And perhaps over time, also supply its perception sensing tech to the consumer electronics industry to fuel their desire for spatial capabilities.
“What’s available out there is simply not sufficient to get to the next level of autonomous driving function,” Salehian
told Yahoo Finance Live. Salehian founded Aeva with fellow former Apple engineer Mina Rezk. It competes with several other upstart lidar companies that have recently come to public markets, including Luminar and Innoviz.
Added Salehian, “I do believe there will be an instance where I think the sensing space will transition from this typical 3D lidar to this
4D lidar technology as whole.”
Aeva announced in November its intention to merge with InterPrivate Acquisition Corp. in a SPAC transaction. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021. Before its debut on public markets, Aeva announced on Monday it raised $200 million from Hong Kong hedge fund Sylebra Capital.
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InterPrivate Acquisition Corp. (IPV)
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