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The Aeries II sensor system changes how vehicles see the world. Self-­driving vehicles have traditionally used LiDAR—short for light detection and ranging—to map their surroundings and detect the objects moving around them. But traditional LiDAR sensors have limited speed-measurement precision. So Aeva developed Aeries II, which goes beyond mapping the 3D position of objects to instantly measuring the velocity of everything in a 120-­degree field of vision. The whole system, now being integrated into leading software platforms for self-­driving vehicles, fits on a single silicon chip. And CEO Soroush Salehian says distance is no problem: Aeva has also partnered with NASA to map the surface of the moon.

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Write to Julia Zorthian at julia.zorthian@time.com.

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