Former Valeo Executive to Drive Penetration of AEye LiDAR in Automotive and Commercial Trucking Sectors

AEye Inc., (“AEye”), the global leader in adaptive, high-performance LiDAR solutions, today announced the appointment of automotive veteran Bernd Reichert to the newly created position of Senior Vice President of ADAS. An experienced leader, Reichert comes to AEye from Valeo, where, as VP of sales and business development for Global Driving Assistance, he was responsible for a multi-billion dollar market segment serving OEMs worldwide. At AEye, Reichert will build and lead a globally distributed sales and business development team responsible for accelerating worldwide deployment of AEye LiDAR across automotive and commercial trucking.

Reichert has spent 25 years in key positions in the automotive electronics business at global Tier 1 suppliers. At Valeo, for nearly seven years he was responsible for several billion dollars in global OEM sales for the Driving Assistance Product Group, which included sensors, ECU’s / Domain Controllers, systems and functions for active safety, and autonomous parking and driving. Bernd was responsible as well for the sale of the Valeo Lidar solutions (called Scala, initially based on IBEO technology). Prior to Valeo, Reichert was Vice President and General Manager German OEM Customer Group at Visteon, and VP and GM German OEMs at Johnson Controls Electronics Division for Driver Information Systems and Infotainment. He studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) in Baden-Württemberg.

“AEye continues to attract the industry’s most visionary leaders, and Bernd is no exception,” said Jordan Green, AEye’s co-founder, GM of ADAS and VP of Corporate Development. “Bernd brings extensive Tier 1 experience, and an impressive track record of successfully engaging OEMs and driving billions in component sales. At AEye, he will spearhead the build-out of a world-class ADAS sales and BD team, and will be instrumental in helping AEye deliver on our aggressive automotive growth plan that leverages AEye’s adaptive LiDAR technology and our unique licensing and Tier 1 partner strategy to reduce costs and drive volume.”

“I couldn’t be more excited to join AEye, a company that understands and works within the automotive ecosystem, and whose disruptive, AI-driven technology will play a key role in accelerating the rollout of safety-enhancing ADAS features,” said Reichert. “I have spent numerous years working with OEMs to sell and implement ADAS systems, including LiDAR sensors, with great success. When I saw a demo of AEye’s technology, it was clear to me that AEye ‘s high performance, adaptive LIDAR is the next generation, and that it’s what customers who want features like highway pilot have been asking for. I look forward to joining the company’s exceptional management team, and to playing a significant role in ensuring that AEye is the partner and technology provider of choice for OEMs, supported by our strong Tier 1 partners.”

AEye’s intelligent LiDAR uses adaptive sensing to deliver industry-leading performance, which addresses the most difficult challenges facing autonomous driving, while meeting automotive functional safety requirements. Unlike traditional sensing systems, which passively collect data, AEye’s adaptive LiDAR scans the entire scene, while intelligently focusing on what matters in order to enable safer, smarter, and faster decisions in complex scenarios. As a result, AEye’s LiDAR uniquely enables higher levels of autonomous functionality (SAE L2-L5) at the optimal performance, power, and price.

AEye’s unique technology is complemented by its differentiated business model, wherein the company licenses its reference architecture to tier one partners, like Continental, to create their own custom products to manufacture and sell to automotive OEMs. Tier 1 partners are able to use a single, software-configurable platform to meet the needs of any OEM, while OEMs receive a differentiated product with guaranteed reliability, quality and support.

About AEye

AEye is the premier provider of high-performance, adaptive LiDAR systems for vehicle autonomy, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), and robotic vision applications. AEye’s AI-enabled and software-definable iDAR™ (Intelligent Detection and Ranging) platform combines solid-state adaptive LiDAR, an optionally fused low-light HD camera, and integrated deterministic artificial intelligence to capture more intelligent information with less data, enabling faster, more accurate, and more reliable perception. The company is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and backed by world-renowned financial investors including Kleiner Perkins and Taiwania Capital, as well as GM Ventures, Continental AG, Hella Ventures, LG Electronics, Subaru-SBI, Pegasus Ventures (Aisin), Intel Capital, SK Hynix and Airbus Ventures.

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