Solid-state lidar S3 is of interest. In 2017, Otaru Manufacturing announced that it has partnered with Quanergy to manufacture automotive headlights with built-in laser pointer radar sensors. However, Daisuke Sato, a spokesperson for Otaru, said this month that "the deal has not been finalized.
The consensus in the industry is that no laser pointer vendor has found a perfect solution. Eugene Zhang, a partner at Quanergy's other investor, Tsingtao Capital TSVC, said: "There are some delays in its products. This technology is generally difficult, but I believe in the Quanergy team. They have good opportunities."
Japanese auto parts manufacturer Koito Manufacturing expressed interest in the Quanergy solid-state laser radar S3. In 2017, Otaru Manufacturing announced that it has partnered with Quanergy to manufacture automotive headlights with built-in laser pointer radar sensors. However, Daisuke Sato, a spokesperson for Otaru, said this month, "The deal has not been finalized. We have not yet decided which supplier to purchase the laser radar from."
According to reports, Otaru has also chosen another solid-state laser radar manufacturer, Cepton. Cepton uses a proprietary solid-state laser radar solution called MMT (micro-motion). (For more, see "Cepton Lidar Operating Mechanism Secret, Embedded Lights for Automated Driving")
Eldada believes that Quanergy is confident to win an order from Otaru. He said that Quanergy's laser pointer radar is completely superior to its competitors in performance and, under certain conditions (such as when driving on a highway, requires farther detection distance), beyond the specifications required by Otaru.
Quanergy has always said that its technology can not only be applied to cars. In 2016, the company proposed the idea of using a laser pointer radar to monitor prison boundaries, and later worked with oil companies to use its laser pointer sensor to detect intruders.
However, a Quanergy spokesperson denied that the company will focus on the security market. But all the deals and cooperation announced by the company this year are not from automakers. “We just don’t want to put all the eggs in one basket, and the desperation is limited to areas we can’t control,” Eldada said. It doesn’t mean he gave up the car market. “Ultimately, when the autopilot market really takes off, other applications. Both will look dwarfed."