Veoneer Inc — said to be the world’s largest ‘pure play’ company focused on advanced driver assistance systems, collaborative and automated driving — has been awarded a contract to manufacture the world’s first thermal camera for a Level 4 autonomous vehicle.

Veoneer’s engineering, which is being funded by a world-leading automotive company, will accommodate conditions of poor visibility, including darkness, smoke, sun and headlight glare.

This Level 4 autonomous driving system — the first of its kind — will employ multiple high-resolution thermal cameras (with both narrow and wide fields of view) to enhance the detection of pedestrians, animals, vehicles, motorcycles, cyclists and objects to complement the capabilities of other sensor technologies.

The start of production is planned for 2021.

This latest thermal sensing system is based on Veoneer’s fourth-generation night-vision system, which uses a high-resolution thermal camera plus advanced analytics to detect pedestrians and animals on the road at night, warning drivers of potential dangers in total darkness and other poor-visibility conditions.

Thermal cameras can sense very small temperature differences to differentiate objects from their surroundings — at extended ranges and under all lighting conditions.

Jan Carlson, Veoneer Inc CEO, said: “Thermal cameras are critical for enhancing the safety of autonomous vehicles, because of their unique sensing capabilities.

“This award is an industry breakthrough for Veoneer and the future of self-driving cars.

“We are honoured to have been selected by this premier global automotive manufacturer to contribute to the evolution of highly automated driving systems.”