Automotive News - February 15, 2021 - 34

34 * FEBRUARY 15, 2021

LIDAR

Pandemic has brought
laser focus to ambition
continued from Page 1

Pacala, CEO of lidar supplier Ouster.
Over the past five months, five lidar startups
have gone public via special-purpose acquisition companies or announced intentions to
do so. Collectively, those five have reached a
market valuation of $10.6 billion. Dozens of
other startups have raised hundreds of millions more from venture capitalists.
Yet experts say there's a reality check on the
horizon that's akin to a game of musical
chairs. There are plenty of lidar companies;
there are only so many automakers still looking for partners. Cruise Chief Technology Officer Kyle Vogt noted the five lidar companies
that opted to merge with special-purpose acquisition companies have projected revenue
from " entirely overlapping " potential customers.
" It's totally possible the numbers will be
correct for one of these companies, " Vogt
tweeted in January. " But it's not possible for
all to be correct. "
Vogt outlined the promise and pitfalls
ahead for the lidar industry and compared
the pitches of some of the most high-profile
lidar companies in a 13-tweet thread that culminated with an ominous warning for enthusiastic investors.
" We saw a consolidation/collapse of the robotaxi space over the last 24 months (down to a
handful of players), and lidar is next, " he wrote.
" This probably means lower market caps for
most of these co's, which sucks for everyone involved, but may the best product win! "
As the CEOs of lidar startups and others
have learned, survival will require more than
the best product.

'Jigsaw puzzle'
Much to the consternation of Tesla CEO
Elon Musk, who has lampooned the sensor as
a costly and unnecessary component, lidar
has evolved from a science project into what
everyone else deems an essential part of any
system that allows human drivers to take
their eyes off the road, whether momentarily
or for the entirety of a trip.
Autonomous driving companies such as
Cruise, Argo AI and Aurora have acquired lidar

Financial tailwinds

Lidar suppliers have capitalized on
the trend to go public via specialpurpose acquisition companies.
Here's a look at the 5 that have done
so or intend to do so.
Velodyne: The first lidar company to

go public via a SPAC, Velodyne
completed its merger with Graf
Industrial Corp. in September at a
valuation of $1.8 billion.
Luminar: This key supplier for

Toyota, Volvo and Daimler Trucks
merged with Gores Metropoulos in
December and went public at a
valuation of $3.4 billion.
Ouster: The pioneer of digital lidar

went public in December via a
merger with Colonnade Acquisition
Corp. with a market valuation of
$1.9 billion.
Aeva: The company, founded by

Apple alumni, completed a merger
with InterPrivate Acquisition Corp. in
January with a valuation of $2.1
billion. Supplier ZF is a key
customer.
Innoviz: The Israeli startup, which

works with BMW, has announced it
will go public via a merger with
Collective Growth Corp. at a $1.4
billion valuation. Completion of the
merger is expected next month.

startups, while Waymo and Mobileye have
built internal lidar development programs.
Of course, lidar's uses extend beyond cars
into trucking, delivery robots, warehouses,
industrial applications, smart cities and
more. But autonomous vehicle applications
have commandeered attention, and that's
potentially troubling.
" Investors have no clue, and it's a very difficult sector because each company's technology is very different from each other, " said
Omer Keilaf, CEO of Israeli lidar company Innoviz, which has partnerships with BMW,
Magna and Aptiv, among others. " Everybody
is coming up with claims and promises. "
For the uninitiated, lidar can be complicated. There are different wavelengths at which
the laser pulses can be transmitted - typically 905 nanometers or 1,550 nanometers. Some
lidar devices use rotating parts, though for
automotive purposes, the industry is gravitating toward solid-state and digital lidars.
Some use amplitude modulation - sending a
beam of light and measuring the time it takes to
return - while others use frequency modulation, which produces a continuous wave of light.
No matter the approach, lidar companies
and automakers grapple with the same challenges. They're attempting to optimize the
range, resolution, reflectivity, power consumption and cost, which are all at constant
odds with one another.
" There's such a diversity in architectures,
and each has a very long list of problems that
developers need to overcome, " said Tom Jellicoe, an analyst at TTP, an independent technology consulting firm in the U.K. " All of
these companies seem to be founded on one
piece of the jigsaw puzzle. It's the guys who
have done a good job filling in the other pieces that can make a credible case that they
might get to the end. "

'Cost is king'
In the early days, lidar could cost more than
$70,000 for a 360-degree spinning unit affixed
atop a vehicle. Today, earning a contract for
mass production demands that cost be below
$500 per unit.
" Cost is king, " said Keilaf. He estimated that
a driver-assist system designed for Level 2 automation will be sold to customers as part of a
$3,000 technology package and that Level 3
automated systems will cost $5,000; in either
case, the lidar cannot exceed $500, he said.
Costs fall as volume increases, which is one
reason why Innoviz has taken an auto-centric, traditional path to the market.
For the past three and a half years, the company has worked with BMW and Magna to ensure lidar can be manufactured at scale. Like
many new technologies before, lidar's business path will be through luxury carmakers,
Keilaf foresees, as their buyers are early adopters willing to pay a premium for these systems.
And once automakers choose a production
lidar supplier, it would be arduous for them to
switch for later generations of vehicles.
" Nobody has the appetite to change the
hardware, " he said. " So we're very focused on
winning premium cars today and understanding that will give us the lead. Or at least
we will have reserved a seat with the short list
of companies that will eventually go forward. "

Autos and beyond
COVID-19 has helped clarify that picture. A
year ago, Jellicoe says, many automakers and
suppliers were enamored with various lidar
solutions, often tinkering with numerous sensor configurations on vehicles and rewriting
specifications for their lidar suppliers. The
pandemic has compelled automakers and
Tier 1s to essentially etch their plans in stone.
" We've noticed a real acceleration, " Jellicoe
said. " They're cutting away the lightweight
ambitions and laser-focused on what's important to them. "
Along those lines, Ouster's sales grew 350
percent year over year in 2020, according to
Pacala. He agrees with the notion that companies that have already manufactured lidar
as part of production contracts will remain

A look at the lidar field

Lidar is being utilized in a growing number of driver-assist and autonomous applications
across the automotive landscape. Here's a snapshot of the key suppliers.

FRONT-RUNNERS
Velodyne: Company founder Dave Hall pioneered lidar for automotive purposes.
Velodyne reports it has more than 300 customers overall. In December, the company
introduced its Velarray H800 sensor, based on its micro-lidar array technology, designed
for last-mile delivery and warehouse applications.
Ouster: The company, valued at $1.9 billion,
says it has more than 800 customers within
and beyond automotive. CEO Angus Pacala
says the company has pioneered digital lidar,
vastly reducing the number of needed parts.
Ouster revenue grew 350% in 2020, Pacala
said.
Luminar: The company is partners with 7
global automakers, including Toyota and Volvo.
It also has announced partnerships with
Daimler Trucks and global supplier Mobileye. It
enters series production on certain Volvo
vehicles in 2022.
Hesai: In September, the Shanghai company
unveiled its latest Pandar128 mechanical
sensor, which offers 200 meters of range at
10% reflectivity. It has raised $231.2 million
and works with companies such as Bosch,
Nuro and TuSimple.

Ouster
Luminar

Innoviz: The company, set to go public in
March, has worked with BMW and global
supplier Magna on a production vehicle project
for the past 3½ years. Innoviz is backed by the
likes of SoftBank Ventures Asia and Aptiv. Beyond automotive, it plans lidar for space,
agriculture and operations in geographic-specific areas such as colleges or office
campuses.

CONTENDERS
Ibeo: The company has been developing lidar for more than 2 decades. Ibeo, founded in
Germany, partnered with Valeo to manufacture lidar for the Audi A8, the first production
vehicle ever to contain lidar sensors.
Aeva: The venture, co-founded by former Apple workers, has homed in on 4D lidar, which
allows the sensors to capture velocity information of objects. In September, the
company inked a deal with ZF to develop production lidar for driver-assist systems and
autonomous vehicles.
Opsys Tech: The Israeli startup aims to combine the best of traditional scanning lidar
- range and resolution - with the reliability and lower cost associated with flash lidar.
It claims to scan the full field of view at 1,000 frames per second. Opsys, founded in
2016, received an investment from Hyundai in January.
Cepton: In January, the company introduced a miniature lidar sensor called the Nova
that detects objects at close range. It's intended for use in driver-assist applications
and costs roughly $100 per sensor. Each sensor measures approximately 7.5
centimeters by 3.5 centimeters.

LOOKING INWARD
Not all automotive and AV companies have turned outside for lidar needs. Some of the
most prominent companies have brought efforts to develop and deploy lidar in-house.
Here's a review of those efforts.
Waymo: The company boasts that its internally developed Laser Bear Honeycomb lidar
has been vetted in more than 2 million miles of real-world testing. Waymo sells the
Laser Bear to others, though it has been tight-lipped on which companies have been
using it.
Argo AI: In 2017, Argo AI purchased Princeton Lightwave, a lidar company in New
Jersey. A spokesperson for Argo, which is backed by Ford and Volkswagen, said lidar
development was proceeding on schedule and there would be more developments in
the near future.
Cruise: Also in 2017, General Motors-backed Cruise acquired Strobe to help drive down
lidar costs. Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt is still watching the lidar space, tweeting in
January that it was primed for consolidation.
Aurora: In May 2019, Aurora acquired Blackmore, the Montana startup that pioneered
frequency-modulated lidar for automotive applications. Now, Aurora says the acquisition
has underpinned its emphasis on autonomous trucking, unlocking the ability to detect
objects at longer distances.
Mobileye: The company is best known for supplying camera-based computer vision
systems. But in January, it said it was developing its own frequency-modulated lidar for
use in AVs starting in 2025.
- Pete Bigelow

viable while competitors without that experience will falter.
" That's an extremely good metric, " he said.
But compared with Innoviz, Ouster has taken a different approach to business development. Pacala is reluctant to marry the company to any particular customer and potentially
narrow its market.
Ouster has more than 800 customers across
multiple industries, per financial documents.
It sells lidar for driver-assist systems at $600
per unit. But automotive is just 30 percent of

Ouster's customer base. The company has
gained traction in other applications, such as
trucking, mining and defense. Beyond that,
Ouster may supply lidar for everything from
e-bikes to aerial vehicles. In Pacala's view, the
real opportunity is not limited to one particular sector, but the chance to redefine transportation writ large.
" I'm a car nut, " Pacala said. " But the opportunity is much bigger than automotive. Ouster's goal is to put a lidar sensor on every moving object on Earth. " a

https://www.twitter.com/kvogt/status/1346884868358037505 https://www.twitter.com/kvogt/status/1346884868358037505

Automotive News - February 15, 2021

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