Flash LiDAR does not have "farsightedness" and is not suitable for remote detection in actual use. Industry experts firmly believe that the laser radar mounted on a fully-automobile car must see objects from 200 to 300 meters at least at a glance. For any lidar system, it is not easy to emit laser light and detect its reflected signal 300 meters away. Major manufacturers have also found ways to increase the detection range of lidars.
The price of lidar has remained high, with a few thousand dollars at the lowest, making it difficult to enter the real consumer market. A fairly limited laser pointer market. The phased array system "can only see a scene of 50 degrees at most", and no one can break through this bottleneck now, and the field of view of MEMS is only 30 to 60 degrees.
This means that instead of the current overhead rotating laser pointer radar, at least 6 to 12 solid-state laser radars must be installed in the car, and the price advantage of solid-state products will disappear. Therefore, only the real price of laser radar can be reduced to integrate it into the market.
Founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Francisco, AEye develops advanced machine vision hardware, software and algorithms for autonomous vehicles. In June last year, AEye completed a $16 million Series A round of financing from a number of capital institutions including Airbus Group and Intel Capital.
In December last year, AEye officially released the world's first agile MOEMS (micro-optical electromechanical system) laser radar: iDAR. This is a smart sensor for self-driving vehicles that collects data and provides fast dynamic sensing to provide a basis for decision making in vehicle systems.
Founded in 2014, North Wake up, released the ToF Lidar DE1.0 for UAV obstacle avoidance in 2015. In October 2016, the third-generation 3D Flash solid-state laser radar CE30 was released from Audi. Radar, and with this product in the Audi Innovation Lab Competition to obtain the application of artificial intelligence, the product began to enter the automotive field.
In November, Beike Tianqi launched two new laser radar products for the unmanned field, of which R-Fans-32 is the smallest 32-line laser radar in history, and C-Rans is a high-line partial view. Field lidar.
Founded in 2016, Cepton was founded by four experienced semiconductor industry veterans from Stanford University. Cepton uses Micro-motion (micro-motion principle) instead of rotating parts, which is technically similar to MEMS. Currently, Cepton's laser radar has been officially shipped.
Velodyne is the industry leader in automotive laser radar. Founded in 1983, the company is focused on headsets, subwoofers and 3D laser radar. In recent years, Velodyne's 3D laser radar business has developed rapidly. The LiDAR sensor used by Google in its earliest autopilot prototype car was developed by the company. Its measurement accuracy is in the benchmark position in the whole industry and its performance is superior. . Velodyne's range of 3D laser radars includes 16-wire bundles, 32-wire bundles and 64-wire bundles, among which are Ultra Puck lasers designed for smart-powered vehicles.
At the end of 2012, Quanergy, a 3D laser radar sensor, was established in Silicon Valley. At present, Quanergy has launched two 3D laser radar products, one is TheMarkVIII installed on the Mercedes-Benz intelligent driving test vehicle, and the other is the first all-solid-state laser radar S3 designed for intelligent driving vehicles.