Stellantis invests in French startup developing chips for automated driving

Stellantis NV said this week it is backing the French startup SteerLight, a firm developing a system known as lidar that the automaker hopes could improve its automated driving systems in the coming years.

Executives didn't disclose how much was being invested in the startup by the automaker's corporate venture arm, Stellantis Ventures, but said they hoped SteerLight could help improve driver assistance systems, including fully-automated driving.

SteerLight makes microchips with lidar, which is a light detection and ranging sensing technology that can detect the surrounding environment in three dimensions.

François Simoens, co-founder and CEO of SteerLight, said a key feature of the company's lidar technology was that they were just chips, without the need for additional mechanical pieces or a lens. They can be manufactured through typical semiconductor industry processes, he said.

The CEO said he hoped the Stellantis investment, along with a couple of others recently putting money into the firm, could help SteerLight "unlock large-scale adoption of LIDAR for industrial and mobility applications," including in next-generation cars.

Stellantis said in an announcement that Steerlight's lidar system should address two common issues with autonomous driving sensors: high cost, and lots of equipment. Stellantis executives said in a briefing Tuesday they expected the technology's development, and integration into its vehicles, would take at least three or four years if all went smoothly.

SteerLight is a spinoff of the French CEA-Leti technology center, which is based in Grenoble.

Stellantis said its venture capital arm, which started in 2022 with an investment of about $325 million, or 300 million euro, has now invested in 12 startups.