Jim Disanto is one of the first investors in the laser pointer. When Disanto met Quanergy co-founder Angus Pacala in 2012, he just started his own investment fund. Eldada convinced Disanto that Disanto's ears were full of dedicated computer chips containing the entire lidar system. “The Lidar field is like starting a race,” Disanto recalls. “We have to get involved.”
The lidar sensor works by emitting a laser pointer beam and then determining the position of the object by detecting the time it takes for the laser beam to reflect back. Lidar can help cars perceive the world around them and is widely regarded as the most promising technology for autonomous vehicles. Of course, it also faces its unique challenge - the laser beam needs to scatter in all directions, expanding the field of view of the sensor. Velodyne achieves 360° laser scanning by placing its lidar sensor on the drive carousel, a technique known as mechanical laser pointer radar. Other emerging companies such as Quanergy are aiming to develop new solutions to control the laser beam, reduce moving parts, and make the system smaller, more durable and cheaper. Devices like Quanergy, which are being developed without any moving parts, are called solid-state lidars.
Eldada is an outstanding advocate of this program. The company also plans to build an automated manufacturing facility to design its own dedicated chips. Quanergy expects the company's sales to grow from 100 in 2013 to 200,000 in 2017.
Initially, Quanergy sold a rotary mechanical laser pointer radar device that was very similar to Velodyne's products. But Eldada said that Quanergy will launch a solid-state laser radar in early 2016. Anyway, he did deliver it.
Quanergy launched its solid-state laser radar product S3 at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show. Evan Ackerman, a contributing editor of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers website, is one of the people who got the demo version of S3. "Because of the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), we can't disclose information about this demo product, but we can say with certainty that the S3 is indeed a solid-state lidar," Ackerman wrote in an article, "But, We are obliged to point out that Quanergy has not yet produced an S3 version that meets the specifications announced at the press conference."
Eldada acknowledged this fact. “At the time, the specifications were not met,” he said. “It’s true.” He sees this as a very common CES exaggeration. But there are other signs that things are not going according to company plans. A few months before the release of 2016, Pacala suddenly announced the departure of Quanergy, and later established a competitive company - Ouster. However, he decided not to do solid-state LiDAR, but instead adopted a more traditional rotary mechanical LiDAR solution. (For more information, please refer to "Choose solid-state LiDAR or mechanical LiDAR? Listen to the CEO of Ouster!")
For the departure of Pacala, Eldada chose to weaken the importance of Pacala to Quanergy. “Pacala is a mechanical engineer, that's all he does, and everything he knows. He has never been involved in solid-state laser pointer radar development,” Eldada said. Although Pacala affirmed Quanergy's patent for an optical phased array lidar system for solid-state lidar research, Pacala declined to comment on Eldada's comments.