AEye 4Sight Lidar Named Reuters 2023 Automotive DRIVE Honours Winner

Prestigious Award Recognizes industry Leaders Driving Innovation Globally

AEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIDR), a global leader in adaptive, high-performance lidar solutions, today announced that it has received the coveted Reuters Automotive DRIVE Honours Award, an annual award for automotive excellence. AEye’s 4Sight™ Intelligent Sensing Platform received the Innovation prize, given to 5 companies that have developed an innovative product offering that is accelerating the automotive industry. AEye is joined in the award by Hyundai, Nio, Lucid, and Polestar.

The competitive process looked at innovation in technology, supply chain, and partnerships, and elicited hundreds of entries from across the globe. The judging panel – made up of automotive specialists – awarded AEye high points across all key areas, including vision, impact, and scalability.

According to the judges, “AEye’s 4Sight Intelligent Sensing Platform is a critical enabling technology for the next generation of vehicles. Their platform and technology is high-performing, scalable, and flexible. Based on the broad and superior performance, this seems to be well aligned with the needs of the industry today and for the next several years.”

AEye’s 4Sight Intelligent Sensing Platform employs a software-definable lidar with adaptable and updateable software to enhance advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) capabilities, enabling next gen safety features and software revenue opportunities. The 4Sight reference designs are differentiated technically by their range, resolution, reliability, and reconfigurability, and are licensed to global Tier 1 automotive suppliers for high volume manufacturing. The business model is designed to enable AEye to focus on developing industry-leading technology and designing modular reference designs built on a software-definable platform, while AEye’s Tier 1 automotive partners configure, industrialize, and manufacture those products to meet each OEM’s specific requirements.

“We’re honored to be recognized by Reuters Automotive and its distinguished panel of judges as an industry leader driving automotive innovation,” said Matt Fisch, CEO of AEye. “The movement toward electrification, autonomy, and service-based business models dramatically increases the industry’s reliance on software architectures to deliver on the promise of enhanced safety features and functionality, as well as new revenue streams. It also requires sensing solutions that are flexible enough to learn over time. AEye’s 4Sight Intelligent Sensing Platform reduces time-to-market for new features and allows OEMs to continuously improve upon or introduce features and functionality across all vehicle models through software upgrades, allowing them to deliver a future-proofed ADAS roadmap.”

Today, AEye is focused on development, validation, and industrialization of Continental’s HRL-131 Long Range Lidar product, built on the 4Sight platform. The product is being incorporated into Continental’s existing full stack ADAS sensing portfolio to enhance safety systems in a wide variety of driving environments. Continental can scale production using their global production footprint, as one of the world’s leading suppliers of autonomous and advanced driver assistance systems. Over time, AEye’s business model enables the company to work with additional Tier 1s to scale even more broadly.

For more on AEye’s Innovation award, visit the Reuters DRIVE Honours summary here.

About AEye

AEye’s unique software-defined lidar solution enables advanced driver-assistance, vehicle autonomy, smart infrastructure, and logistics applications that save lives and propel the future of transportation and mobility. AEye’s 4Sight™ Intelligent Sensing Platform, with its adaptive sensor-based operating system, focuses on what matters most: delivering faster, more accurate, and reliable information. AEye’s 4Sight™ products, built on this platform, are ideal for dynamic applications which require precise measurement imaging to ensure safety and performance. AEye has a global presence through its offices in Germany, Korea, and the United States.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including the safe harbor provisions under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are sometimes accompanied by words such as “believe,” “continue,” “project,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “predict,” “plan,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “outlook,” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends, or that are not statements of historical matters. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections, and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward looking statements included in this press release include statements about the adaptability, benefits, and features of AEye’s products, the competitive advantages of AEye’s business model, as well as the use of lidar in automobiles generally, among others. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as and must not be relied on by an investor as a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction, or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are very difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from the assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of AEye. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to: (i) the risks that AEye’s 4Sight Intelligent Sensing Platform’s software-definable lidar may not enhance advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) capabilities, enable next gen safety features, nor enable software revenue opportunities as anticipated, or at all; (ii) the risks that the 4Sight reference designs may not be differentiated technically by their range, resolution, reliability, and reconfigurability to the extent anticipated, or at all; (iii) the risk that the licenses to Tier 1 automotive suppliers may not result in high volume manufacturing in the time frame anticipated, or at all; (iv) the risks that the automotive industry may not rely on software architectures as anticipated, or at all; (v) the risks that AEye’s 4Sight Intelligent Sensing Platform may not reduce time-to-market for new features, allow OEMs to continuously improve upon or introduce features and functionality across all vehicle models through software upgrades, or allow OEMs to deliver a future-proofed ADAS roadmap as anticipated, or at all; (vi) the risks that lidar adoption occurs slower than anticipated or fails to occur at all; (vii) the risks that AEye’s products may not meet the diverse range of performance and functional requirements of target markets and customers; (viii) the risks that AEye’s products may not function as anticipated by AEye, or by target markets and customers; (ix) the risks that AEye may not be in a position to adequately or timely address either the near or long-term opportunities that may or may not exist in the evolving autonomous transportation industry; (x) the risks that laws and regulations are adopted impacting the use of lidar that AEye is unable to comply with, in whole or in part; (xi) the risks associated with changes in competitive and regulated industries in which AEye operates, variations in operating performance across competitors, and changes in laws and regulations affecting AEye’s business; (xii) the risks that AEye is unable to adequately implement its business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; and (xiii) the risks of downturns and a changing regulatory landscape in the highly competitive and evolving industry in which AEye operates. These risks and uncertainties may be amplified by the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to cause significant economic uncertainty. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the “Risk Factors” section of the periodic report that AEye has most recently filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, and other documents filed by us or that will be filed by us from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made.

Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements; AEye assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. AEye gives no assurance that AEye will achieve any of its expectations.

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