Aeva and Nvidia to integrate 4D lidar as sensor in the Drive Hyperion Platform...

06 Jan 2026

...and LightIC launches the “smallest” 4D FMCW lidar system (both at CES 2026).

Aeva, a developer of sensing and perception systems, has announced that its frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) 4D lidar technology has been selected for Nvidia’s Drive Hyperion autonomous vehicle reference platform.

Nvidia Drive Hyperion is an open, modular AV development platform designed to help leading global OEMs and mobility providers bring higher levels of automation to market safely and at scale. It combines a sensor suite that includes lidar, multiple radars, cameras, ultrasonics and external microphones, together with Nvidia’s Drive AGX Thor and DriveOS operating system to enable Level 3 and Level 4 automated driving features.

“As a growing number of leading OEMs build their next-generation software-defined vehicles on the Nvidia Drive platform, sensing and perception technology becomes a foundational requirement for enabling Level 3 and higher automated driving,” said Soroush Salehian, Co-Founder and CEO of Aeva. “We’re honored that Aeva’s 4D lidar is the sensor for the Hyperion vehicle platform. This represents the strength of our technology, supporting its adoption by a growing list of global OEMs.”

This selection follows Aeva’s global production win with a Top European passenger OEM and establishes Aeva’s growing leadership in the passenger and commercial vehicle OEM markets as a key provider of LiDAR sensing and perception software technology for OEMs globally.

Aeva’s 4D lidar adds 3D sensing and a unique per-point instant velocity measurement to Hyperion’s perception stack, enabling higher-confidence detection, more stable tracking, and robust long-range performance in both day and night conditions. Built on a silicon-photonics lidar-on-chip architecture, Aeva’s sensors are designed for automotive-grade reliability, high-volume manufacturability, and seamless integration with advanced perception software.

LightIC launches ‘smallest’ 4D FMCW lidar

LightIC Technologies, a developer of silicon-photonics-based FMCW lidar, has announced the FR60, said to be the world’s smallest 4D FMCW lidar, delivering real-time range and point-level velocity sensing with an ultra-wide field of view in a palm-size form factor.

Purpose-built for robotics and Physical AI, the FR60 offers high-performance 4D perception to platforms, in which size, weight, power consumption, and cost (“SWaP-C”) are critical constraints. Based on LightIC’s fully integrated, fiberless silicon-photonics chip and a dedicated FMCW lidar system-on-chip, the FR60 is said to overcome traditional performance trade-offs.

Jie Sun, CEO, commented, “FR60 makes 4D FMCW lidar deployable at scale. Its compact form factor, millimeter-level precision, real-time velocity sensing, and resilience to sunlight and interference allow robots to perceive more and operate precisely indoors or outdoors.”

Key features

• Palm-size 4D FMCW lidar for low-SWaP-C applications
• Ultra-wide field of view: 110° × 60°;
• High precision: up to 7 mm ranging accuracy;
• Inherent immunity to sunlight and mutual interference for reliable indoor and outdoor operation;
• Robust perception for SLAM, navigation, obstacle detection, and scene understanding; and
• Up to 200-line image-grade resolution via software configuration, enhancing small-object detection and mapping efficiency.

The FR60 is said to deliver “true 4D perception” by measuring both range and point-level velocity, enabling robots to better understand motion, distinguish dynamic objects from static backgrounds, and improve tracking in complex environments.

At the core of the FR60 is LightIC’s proprietary fiberless silicon-photonics integration combined with a coherent FMCW architecture. Unlike conventional time-of-flight lidar and camera systems, the FR60 can maintain accuracy under direct sunlight and in the presence of interference from other lidarsensors, enabling consistent operation across indoor and outdoor environments.