Last March, LEDinside, one of the most prestigious platform in the sensor field, selected SOS Lab as one of the most promising
LIDAR firms at CES 2019. Industry experts applauded leading technological prowess and expandability of SOS Lab as being
distinctive from other LIDAR companies.
We interviewed Ji-Sung Jeong, the CEO of SOS Lab, which is recognized as a Top-Tier player in the LIDAR industry, drawing the attention of the world.
Please give us a brief introduction to your company
SOS Lab is a company that specializes in the development and manufacture of LIDAR sensors,
the core solution for autonomous devices such as self-driving cars, factory machines, drones, robots, and security systems
worldwide.
SOS Lab was incorporated in June 2016, and the company just turned three years old!
SOS Lab is a technology-intensive startup, based on the culmination of research on LIDAR that extends over 15 years.
Four doctoral candidates who have been working in the lab of Professor Ki-Hwan Park at the Gwangju Institute of Science and
Technology started this company, and then other talented colleagues from our lab, as well as top researchers in Korea, joined. Also, we now have experts in the vehicle parts industry who have extensive experience in large-scale manufacturing of vehicle parts, growing our company to more than 40 people.
Please introduce us your core technology and your product.
LIDAR, a radar sensor technology, is considered an integral part in self-driving technology, a core aspect of the 4th Industrial
Revolution. You can think of it as the eyes of self-driving cars. It is essential for self-driving cars to detect as much road
information as possible and minimize the loss of information. With ‘Hybrid LIDAR (SL-1),’ we have developed peripheral
information tailored to driving conditions of a self-driving vehicle, unlike existing LIDAR systems that measures a fixed area within the confined angle by a specified speed.
The hybrid system uses close-range wide-angle measurement mode when a car is driving slowly on city roads.
On the other hand, Hybrid LIDAR makes the transition into long-range, high-speed measurement mode when the car is driving
fast on the highway. Also, we have resolved deterioration of performance issues depending on the external environment such
as sunlight, temperature, snow, and rain with our very own patented techniques. Otherwise, we are developing a LIDAR system that specializes in industrial automation and drones (GL-3), and another one that can be used for security monitoring.
We are also looking to integrating AI-based recognition and tracing technology using 3D point cloud LIDAR data as well as
Data Space/Object recognition solutions for self-driving technology.
What is your biggest challenge in running a company, and how are you handling it?
We struggled with finances right before the Series A investment started to come to us.
We began to raise money later than we anticipated, and we reached a point where we could not pay our employees.
Co-founders, directors, and employees took out personal loans to cover the payroll and credit card charges.
Those loans were settled after the investment funds came, with a little interest.
It was the point where I realized how important the people are beside us.
We are also proceeding with fundraising projects this year and carefully managing our finances for potential delays.
Tell us about your prospects and plans down the road.
The most immediate goal would be releasing our product lines, manufactured through a LIDAR technological mass production system, to the market within the year. In mid and long-term, our goal is to make a semi-conductor type LIDAR which we can
make miniaturize to the size of a camera so that it can be integrated into headlights of cars as well as creating LIDAR that can
operate for 15 years or 300,000 km. If we can realize those products, it would become an alternative to the issues cameras
have (lighting, lack of distance information, privacy issue).
Lastly, do you have some advice for aspiring entrepreneurs who wants to follow your footsteps?
I want to tell you to become a frog in the well. Sometimes the saying 'frog in the well' has a negative undertone.
However, the well of GIST is one of the best and well-funded wells in the world.
Therefore, you have the most advanced technology at this fine institution, and you can be assured that your skills and ideas are some of the bests in the world. Be confident in what you can give and do not hesitate to challenge the global stage.
