The LiDAR market encompasses such applications as ADAS, autonomous vehicles, industries, deliveries, and smart cities; while these applications are estimated to have driven the LiDAR market to reach US$682 million in revenue in 2020, total LiDAR revenue is projected to further expand to $2.932 billion in 2025, a 34% CAGR, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. TrendForce indicates that, with regards to automotive LiDAR applications (ADAS and autonomous vehicles), automakers have continued to release NEVs in spite of the COVID-19 p...

Lucid Motors announced its DreamDrive, an ADAS system combining sensing solutions including LiDARS which will be equipped with Lucid Air revealing on September 9, 2020. Lucid Air that will be delivered in early 2021 is expected to be the first to market with the combination of a driver monitoring system and a sensor suite that includes high-resolution LIDAR as standard equipment. The DreamDrive technology suite supports 19 key safety, driving, and parking assist features that will be available on Lucid Air upon start of production, with another eight features e...

Velodyne Lidar announced two new business partners and is going to leverage its LiDAR sensing technologies for people flow monitoring and automation at one of the busiest seaport. Velodyne signed a multi-year partnership agreement with Outsight, who offers solutions of Smart Cities monitoring. Outsight uses Velodyne Lidar sensing technology in its 3D Semantic Camera system that helps businesses and governments improve the analysis and management of people flow and assets in large crowded environments. LiDAR sensors enable 3D capture and tracking of people and object...

Driven by the prospering development of autonomous driving technology, LiDAR companies across the world continue to expand their business and present new products. Many LiDAR builders reported their updates in both technology and business progresses in 2019. Following these news, LEDinside would like to share with our readers updates of the LiDAR industry in the past year.

Sony announced the partnership with Yamaha Motor for a joint development of the SC-1 Sociable Cart, an autonomous vehicle that delivers a new mobility experience. Sony and Yamaha Motor plan to launch services using this model in Japan in fiscal 2019. The vehicle was developed solely for the purpose of providing a new mobility experience, and it will not be made available for sale. The SC-1 is designed to transform what was a mere means of mobility into an all-new opportunity for entertainment. Sony and Yamaha Motor will deploy it to provide fun new diversions at venues s...

Sense Photonics, a company building the next generation LiDAR and 3D sensor solutions for autonomous vehicles, industrial equipment and other applications, announced a close of a US$26 million Series A funding round. The round was co-led by Acadia Woods Partners and Congruent Ventures, with participation from a number of other investors, including Prelude Ventures, Samsung Ventures and Shell Ventures. LEDinside was honored to have a conversation with Scott Burroughs, CEO of Sense Photonics, to understand how the company’s solid-state LiDAR system us...

Quanergy Systems announced a partnership with Chinese automotive manufacturer Chery Automobile. Quanergy signed on to Chery Lion’s Smart Partner Program as the LiDAR partner, to focus efforts on advancing autonomous driving and smart cities in China. Quanergy‘s S3 automotive grade solid state LiDARs are based on optical phased arrays (OPA) produced in CMOS silicon. These sensors, being fully solid state with no moving parts on any scale, offer an unparalleled level of quality and reliability. Further, the CMOS silicon node used in wafer fabri...

US-based LiDAR startup Luminar announced that it is entering the consumer automotive and commercial trucking markets with a sensing and perception platform called Iris. After three years of stealth development and continuously increasing funds, the company revealed its perception software built on its LiDAR sensing platform. (Image: Luminar) A recent addition of US$100 million, along with previously unannounced capital, brings the company’s total raised to date to more than $250 million. Major financial investors include G2VP, two of the most prominent sover...

The evolution of automobile including changes in energy source and improvement of driving technology is also bringing advances in automotive lighting. The leading photonic technology provider Osram has continued to accelerate its development in automotive lighting and other innovative automotive technologies. Mike Godwin, OSRAM’s Director of Automotive LED Marketing, shared his insight of how automotive LED lighting has improved with the progress of autonomous vehicles. (Mike Godwin, OSRAM’s Director of Automotive LED Marketing. Image: Osr...

Velodyne Lidar announced that Idriverplus, a China-based company who commercialized driverless technology, is using Velodyne’s groundbreaking LiDAR sensors in a range of autonomous driving products. Velodyne has strategically teamed with Idriverplus to help Idriverplus with its efforts for mass production of commercial autonomous vehicles, which include street cleaners, passenger cars, and logistics vehicles. Velodyne LiDAR sensors are used in all Idriverplus self-driving vehicles, providing rich computer perception data that allows real-time object and free space ...

Sense Photonics, a company building the next generation of LiDAR and 3D sensor solutions for autonomous vehicles, industrial equipment and other applications, announced a close of a $26 million Series A funding round. The round was co-led by Acadia Woods and Congruent Ventures, with participation from a number of other investors, including Prelude Ventures, Samsung Ventures and Shell Ventures. The company’s solid-state LiDAR system ushers in a new era of advanced 3D imaging technology designed from the ground up to meet the cost, performance and safety requ...

Aurora, the self-driving technology developer, announced its plan to acquire Blackmore, a US-based LiDAR company, asserting LiDAR as a critical component for autonomous vehicle. In Aurora’s announcement, the company noted that on top of its prior knowledge of self-driving technology, it is now focusing on the next generation LiDAR technology called Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW). Blackmore, with its expertise in FMCW, will provide Aurora advantages of high dynamic range, single photon sensitivity, and interference immunity, which advance s...

Blickfeld, a Germany-based LiDAR technology provider, announced its partnership with Koito Manufacturing, the tier-one supplier of exterior automotive lighting, for exploring technologies to develop a LiDAR sensor that can be fully integrated into a headlight. The integration of Blickfeld’s LiDAR into Koito headlamps will enable automobile manufacturers to possess breakthrough LiDAR technology in which the sensor is fully integrated into the vehicle. Blickfeld claims that the integration will facilitate progress in serial Advanced Driver Assistance System...

Velodyne Lidar is going to demonstrate its LiDAR solutions at the SmartDrivingCar Summit on May 15-16 in Princeton, N.J., USA. The SmartDrivingCar Summit examines the fundamental economic forces of supply, demand, and public oversight driving deployment and commercialization of vehicle autonomy. The event is co-chaired by Professor Alain Kornhauser of Princeton University and features academic, industry, and government experts discussing the safety benefits of self-driving cars, regulatory challenges, mobility and community service benefits, and technology. ...

Velodyne Lidar announced an agreement with Nikon Cooperation, under which Sendai Nikon Corporation, a Nikon subsidiary, will manufacture LiDAR sensors for Velodyne with plans to start mass production in the second half of 2019. Through the partnership with Nikon to boost LiDAR sensor production, Velodyne aims to expand its business in North America, Europe and Asia, indicated Marta Hall, President and CBDO, Velodyne Lidar. The company has set a goal to produce LiDAR in millions of units to meet the rising demands in the automotive industry and other a...

Apple has held talks with LiDAR suppliers seeking for advanced LiDAR sensors for its self-driving cars, suggesting that Apple is still working on its automotive vehicle project, known as “Project Titan,” reported Reuters. According to Reuters, Apple has talked to at least four LiDAR suppliers, aiming to find LiDAR sensors with a “revolutionary design” that are “smaller, cheaper and easily mass produced” in comparison to the current technology. However, the reports said Apple has not yet found one that meets its demands. (I...

Lumotive, a LiDAR startup funded by Bill Gates, announced its development of a disruptive beam-steering technology which will significantly improve the performance, reliability and cost of LiDAR systems for the emerging self-driving car industry. With its patented system using Liquid Crystal Metasurfaces (LCM) and silicon fabrication, Lumotive introduced its beam steering LiDAR that is able to simultaneously offer large optical aperture, wide field-of-view and fast scanning. LCMs, semiconductor chips that steer laser pulses based on the light-bending principle...

Waymo, the self-driving subsidiary of Alphabet, will start selling its LiDAR sensor, joining the LiDAR business competition with other LiDAR producers including Velodyne LiDAR and Quanergy. Simon Verghese, Head of Lidar Team at Waymo, announced in a blog post that the company is going to sell Laser Bear Honeycomb, one of the LiDAR sensors Waymo developed for its self-driving vehicles to “select partners” – those who do not compete with Waymo in self-driving taxi business. Waymo has developed three types of sensors using short, mediu...

Perception solution developer AEye announced that eight patents related to its perception system iDAR (Intelligent Detection and Ranging) have been confirmed. AEye’s iDAR is an integrated system combining solid-state MEMs-based agile LiDAR, fused HD camera, and software definable AI technology. With the aim to solve the challenges of robotic vision for autonomous vehicles, AEye developed iDAR, the artificial perception system that combines LiDAR, HD camera and AI intelligence to create a smart perception sensor that mimic human visual cortex fo...

US-based Insight LiDAR showcased its new LiDAR technology development at CES 2019. The company presented Digital Coherent LiDAR, a chip-scale, long-range LiDAR sensor based on Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) to target the emerging autonomous vehicle market. FMCW radar radiates continuous transmission power and can change its operating frequency during the measurement. The technology has stronger sensing capability in comparison with ToF and is suitable for long distance detection. Insight’s Digital Coherent LiDAR was develope...

AUTOMOTIVE WORLD, the automotive technology exhibition taking place concurrently with NEPCON Japan, highlighted the theme of CASE, addressing the next generation features of connected, autonomous, sharing and electric vehicles. Masaki Soda, the show director of AUTOMOTIVE WORLD, told LEDinside that the show gathered cutting-edge automotive technologies focusing on the components and technologies of vehicles including lighting modules, battery drivers, automotive IC, panels and others. Soda said, AUTOMOTIVE WORLD offers a plat...

Hyundai MOBIS is showcasing the latest Communication Lighting concept at CES 2019. Communication Lighting uses an "Indicating Lighting Zone" to indicate when an autonomous vehicle is operating in self-driving mode. The concept also includes a "Communication Lighting Zone" that uses LED, digital boards, headlamp projection and sound to communicate with nearby pedestrians and vehicles during various driving scenarios. According to Hyundai MOBIS, autonomous vehicles outfitted with Communication Lighting can detect a pedestrian from more tha...

Autonomous driving is one of the featured technologies at CES 2019. Automobile manufacturers, LiDAR developers as well as sensing components providers have all prepared to join the high profile event with their cutting-edge technologies. LEDinside has selected some noticeable exhibitors who are showcasing the next generation technology for autonomous driving applications. Velodyne Lidar Velodyne continues to present new products for CES 2019. Last week the company released that it will demonstrate Velodyne Alpha Puck™ and Velodyne Velarray™, sensors ma...

Osram announced that it is providing several of its components for automotive lighting and biometric identification solutions for microSNAP, Rinspeed’s concept vehicle, which will be presented at CES 2019. Rinspeed’s microSNAP is the latest version of the company’s autonomous concept car which has a chassis to contain the drivetrain and most of the IT while connecting to various body types. (Image: Osram) Outside the vehicle, microSNAP uses Osram’s Eviyos, a hybrid LED for smart headlights, which contains individually controlled pi...

ThorDrive, an autonomous vehicle (AV) startup, has utilized LiDAR sensors of Velodyne to realize its commercial vehicle services. On November 29th, ThorDrive is introducing the service with a kick-off event in Palo Alto with attendants including local government and business leaders. The initial service, in partnership with Hassett ACE Hardware, will support select residents of Channing House (senior housing) and fire departments in Palo Alto with plans to expand to additional pilots soon. The ThorDrive platform is using Velodyne’s lidar sensors to provi...

LiDAR startup Luminar and Volvo Cars revealed their development in LiDAR perception for safe autonomous driving technology. Volvo has announced to invest in Luminar in June and became the first of its partners to develop advanced perception capabilities for vehicles. Volvo Cars has introduced its vision for full autonomy with its 360c concept and worked closely with Luminar. At the AutoMobility show in Los Angeles, the two companies jointly demonstrated long-range perception capabilities on a live drive along Los Angeles highways and streets to show Volvo Cars lo...

Chinese autonomous vehicle developer XPENG Motors has announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA and its China partner Desay SV for developing Level 3 autonomous driving technology tailored for the driving environment in China. XPENG Motors will self-develop the software for China's typical traffic conditions and user scenarios and will work with Desay SV to jointly develop the computing hardware platform for autonomous driving. The company plans to implement in various phases the L3 intelligent driving features in its new models starting in 2020. ...

As Osram continues to accelerate its development in high technology, the company has released its latest addition to its laser portfolio for LiDAR applications of autonomous vehicles. LiDAR systems are an integral part of driving assistance systems, such as lane assist and emergency braking systems in autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles. The propagation time of very short light pulses is used to determine the distance between the vehicle and objects in its vicinity. When a laser pulse hits a person or an object it is reflected and captured by a detector. From the time betw...

At this year’s North American International Auto Show’s AutoMobili-D 2018, Osram Opto Semiconductors is demonstrating how its high-power infrared pulse lasers are helping speed the adoption of autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). 

Velodyne Labs has produced a LiDAR with the world’s highest resolution, longest range, and widest field of view, the result of which will boost the autonomous vehicle and advanced safety market.