Stellantis buys stake in optical radar start-up SteerLight

Reuters

Published Mar 20, 2024 07:05

PARIS (Reuters) - European carmaker Stellantis announced on Wednesday that it was acquiring a stake in optical radar start-up SteerLight as it seeks to strengthen its market position and secure access to crucial sensors for autonomous driving. The move is aimed at diversifying supply of light detection and ranging, or lidar, and speeding up the development of components for its future electric fleet, Stellantis, the producer of Fiat, Peugeot and Citroen cars among other brands, said. The amount of the investment, made through Stellantis Ventures, was not disclosed.

SteerLight, a company born out France's public micro and nanotechnology research centre CEA-Leti based in Grenoble, claims its lidar solutions are more compact and less expensive to manufacture than competing products.