High cost of laser radar leads to technical R&D competition in the industry

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With the continuous advancement of autonomous driving technology, major auto companies have launched their own self-driving vehicles and carried out road tests. Various types of vehicle radars, laser radars and sensors provide support for the driving functions of vehicles, playing a very important role. . However, due to its high price, many car companies are temporarily unable to configure the device in large quantities. To this end, many technology companies in the automotive industry and start-up companies have competed to improve their performance while significantly reducing manufacturing costs.

Introduction and application of laser radar

Guillaume Devauchelle, who is responsible for Valeo's product innovation business, once believed that lidar will be the basis for all autonomous vehicles. Lidar is an acronym for light detection and ranging, a sensor that can be used in a variety of autonomous vehicle designs, which can also be used to detect speeding violations.

Waymo is currently recruiting volunteers in the East Valley region, taking its self-driving vehicles for testing in urban areas, and Waymo also uses lidar.

The technology uses near-infrared light to detect the shape of objects around the vehicle. Lidar can produce accurate 3D images, covering trees, vehicles, cyclists in the surrounding environment of the vehicle, and can be used under different lighting conditions. use. Although autonomous vehicles are designed with a variety of sensors, including radar, ultrasound cameras and video cameras, laser radar has its unique features. For example, Lidar does not suffer from imaging errors due to shadows or sunlight being blocked.

At present, the cost issue has become a major obstacle to the widespread promotion of laser radar, and cost reduction has become a top priority. Eight years ago, when the Google Launcher autopilot vehicle research project, it used a laser radar product made by Velodyne for about $75,000. Although Velodyne declined to comment on the current price, Waymo's CEO recently mentioned that the cost of the laser radar system has dropped by 90%.

Although the cost has fallen to $7,500, car companies still believe that the price of the lidar system is too expensive, so it is not possible to configure the device in batches for its vehicles.

Omer Keilaf, CEO of Innoviz Technologies, points out that many car companies hope that the price of a laser radar can be reduced by a factor of 10 by a price of $100, and the size is smaller and the performance is more reliable. However, this technology is still in a vacuum in the industry, and the achievement of this goal is far from as simple as the car companies think.

To compensate for the gap, manufacturers of solid-state lidar systems have embarked on a technical battle that has reduced the size of the sensor after removing the moving parts associated with optical mechanisms. If mass production can be achieved in the future, production costs can be significantly reduced.

High cost leads to laser radar research and development war

Currently, Valeo, Velodyne, Uber, Waymo, LeddarTech, Innoviz and Quanergy are all trying to reduce the cost of such sensors.

The field of view of solid-state lidars is usually limited to only 120 degrees, while the laser radar installed on the roof earlier has a 360-degree view. In order to produce a full range of vision, it is usually necessary to configure six solid-state lidar sensors.

Most researchers working on lidar design believe they can further reduce manufacturing costs. The modern Ioniq automatic driving test vehicle was demonstrated. The company installed this type of sensor in the top pillar of the bumper and the vehicle, and the appearance became less conspicuous.

Luminar Technologies is committed to improving the effective range of laser radars and is trying to increase the range to 200 meters. Today, the top sensor has a range of 120 meters. Luminar's CEO, Austin Russell, pointed out that they use multiple sensitive receivers and more powerful light outputs to extend the range and not harm the human eye.

Velodyne claims to be a third-party supplier of fully autonomous vehicle laser radar. The company is now aware that many start-ups are targeting this emerging business, and Velodyne is also working on the independent development of the solid-state lidar sensor Velarray. According to the president of Velodyne, the company plans to achieve mass production of this product next year.

Although Velodyne's lidar pricing is quite speculative, Jellen declined to estimate the approximate cost of its new lidar sensor, indicating that the entire lidar sensor kit is priced at "thousands of dollars per car".

It is estimated that other companies that manufacture a full suite of self-driving lidar kits are also struggling to cut their manufacturing costs, and their product prices may fall even faster.

According to Jeffrey Owens, CTO of Delphi, the price of such products will be around $8,000 in the next five years and will fall to $5,000 by 2025. Delphi and recently announced that the company is working with BMW, Intel and Mobileye on an autonomous driving platform.