Impressions from CES 2022
Hello!
CES 2022 was a great success for Arbe, despite a few last-minute format changes. While we were forced to cancel our booth due to ongoing Covid-19 limitations, our team of Arbe executives held valuable strategic meetings with customers and analysts, launched our radar-based Free Space Mapping (that shows the drivable space around the vehicle), and demonstrated it live, driving our visitors on the streets of Las Vegas.
The inability of traditional automotive radars to perform Free Space Mapping has posed a significant problem for OEMs’ perception teams, who have had to rely solely on camera algorithms. The ability of Imaging Radar to complement cameras by sensing velocity of moving objects, at long range and with a wide field of view, sensing the environment in all weather, lighting, and visibility conditions – is clearly a significant advantage, and the feedback that we received about the Imaging Radar as a whole, and Free Space Mapping in particular, was glowing without exception (including the CES 2022 Innovation Award which we received – a truly great honor).
We also, as always, were interested to see what other announcements and tech trends would stand out at the conference.
To begin with, there was noticeably more emphasis on the experience inside the vehicles. Notable announcements came from Volvo, which will be integrating the Google Home ecosystem in their vehicles, and Amazon, which plans to provide the Fire TV streaming platform to the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Chrysler Pacifica.
We also saw that many of the technical aspects of driving are being shifted to ADAS and automated driving features. The exciting progress ADAS is making in passenger vehicles can largely be attributed to advancements in vehicle sensors. Some of the important announcements in this arena included GM’s new Ultra Cruise hands-free ADAS system, and Vivo’s Ride Pilot, an “unsupervised” AD feature that allows the car to drive itself fully on certain highways.
Finally, there was also increased focus this year on the compute power needed to make all these changes possible. Qualcomm featured Snapdragon Digital Chassis, which boasts a platform based on a modular SoC/software combination including a Snapdragon Ride Platform for ADAS and automated driving, among a host of other features. Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm all made announcements, including Intel subsidiary Mobileye’s announcement of plans to bring a new supercomputer to market.
Mobileye’s announcement was of particular interest to us. In their session, they outlined that they plan to develop a radar system with a 2304 channel count, and that they plan to keep only one front-facing LiDAR and a full surround of imaging radars, to reduce sensor suite costs and increase robustness. Naturally, we found their announcement validating – their high channel count echoes ours, and conforms to the strategy we’ve been developing for years. They clearly agree with our long-held argument that high resolution radar is the desirable counterpart for cameras. Mobileye expects to have a system ready by 2025 – three years after our system’s scheduled debut, and just in time for us to release our next-generation radar!
We look forward to next year’s conference, but more importantly we look forward to sharing the progress we’ll be making over the course of this year, and further cementing our leadership position in the automotive radar space.
Kobi Marenko, CEO, Arbe
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This communication contains certain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, both as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words “expect,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “project,” “may,” “should,” “strategy,” “future,” “will,” “project,” “potential” and similar expressions indicate forward-looking statements. 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. Statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the development of the market for, and acceptance by the market of, radar and ADAS-based products; the timing of the market introduction of our radar products and the development, timing and market introduction of any second generation product, including whether a second generation product will be developed , whether a short-test of our radar-based Free Space Mapping in Las Vegas reflects the performance of our product an extended basis under all weather conditions and terrain, our ability to claim and sustain a leadership position in the automotive radar field; our ability to place our products with tier-1 suppliers and OEMs. You should carefully consider the risk factors and uncertainties described in “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and the additional risk described in Arbe’s prospectus dated November 2, 2021, which was filed by Arbe with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 4, 2021, as well as the other documents filed by Arbe with the SEC. Accordingly, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate only to the date they were made, and Arbe does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made except as required by law or applicable regulation.
All statements relating to products, developments, plans and dates with respect to companies other than Arbe are based solely on information presented by such companies at the CES conference, and Arbe makes no representation as to the accuracy or adequacy thereof.
