In 2014, Quanergy Systems (hereafter referred to as Quanergy) was in the midst of a sudden boom in the autonomous driving industry. Quanergy specializes in manufacturing lidars that help autopilot cars understand the environment. In September of the same year, the fledgling company announced a partnership with the established automaker, Mercedes-Benz, to provide laser pointer radar for its autopilot test vehicles. Establishing partnerships with the world's most famous car brands has really envied the same industry startups. In January 2015, the two companies demonstrated the Mercedes E350 sedan equipped with Quanergy Lidar at the CES Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
At that time, the laser radar industry was dominated by Velodyne, and the huge and expensive lidar of the early auto-driving car roof of Google was provided by Velodyne. Quanergy practices Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial heritage: using advanced technology to shrink existing hardware and then sell it at a lower price. Quanergy is one step ahead as investors move large sums of money to laser radar startups. So far, the company has completed financing of $160 million and has a valuation of more than $1.5 billion. Last fall, Quanergy began discussing the company's possible IPO with banking institutions, making it the first publicly traded company to stand out from autonomous car manufacturing technology companies.
According to reports, in July this year, the Mercedes-Benz parent company, Daimler AG, announced again that Daimler said that it is conducting a self-driving car test plan on the city streets of the Bay Area, including a few tests. Home partner, but it does not include Quanergy. For Lidar, its robotic taxi will use the products offered by Velodyne. In addition, Daimler declined to comment on its partnership with Quanergy.
This is a disturbing news for one of the first unicorns in the laser pointer radar industry. Quanergy has been working hard to deliver products according to its own schedule, and has shipped equipment that does not match performance and promotion. In the past 18 months, the company has experienced a large number of employees leaving the company, including several key positions. But the biggest challenge Quangan is facing now is that its autonomous car business has not evolved as it expected. The company began to pay more attention to the application of laser radar in other areas, including plans to help establish a “digital border wall” on the Mexican border. However, this project has caused many employees to feel uneasy.