Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2021 - 22

Sensors

A tech analyst's take on automotive Lidar

$500 per unit remains extremely costly: " $500 lidars are a positive
step for the industry in terms of cost reduction, but they're not going
to make a big dent in the L2 space. Those lidars are probably going to
be more for the few L4 systems released for robotaxis and mobility-as-a-service solutions.
" It's a price/performance discussion - how many degrees of view
will $500 buy me? How much range? And what is the application? Not
every lidar needs to deliver 200 meters of performance. There is value

The ever-evolving lidar market: " I see the lidar market offering mixed
technology based on the use case and the value proposition. Right
now, it's hard to say which of the various companies and business
models will turn out to be dominant. Captive manufacturing allows
you to control quality and everything necessary to make a precision
solution. And in this segment of automotive, there is something to be
said for controlling your cost until the market gets established. "
- Lindsay Brooke

Velodyne Lidar's new,
compact Velarray H800 solid-state lidar
sensor is designed for safe navigation and collision
avoidance in ADAS and autonomous mobility applications.

Aimed at all SAE levels

Gopalan, an electronics and microsystems engineer,
explained key features of the solid-state H800 and
talked about the enablers that led to its development.
" As the [solid-state] technology platform matured,
we started working with some of our lead automotive
OEM customers around building a scalable product
that's really suitable for their needs in ADAS, from
[SAE] Level 2 all the way to Level 5 full autonomy.
We expect it to be used mainly in Level 2 and Level 3
applications, of course. The H800 was really architected
with automotive-grade feedback. "
The trend of adding more capability to Level 2
driver-assist systems prompted Velodyne's development of the Velarray product. " Three years ago, we
were hearing from our OEM customers a realization,
that lidar has to be part of the solution to create robust
ADAS Level 2-Plus and Level 3 systems, " Gopalan
said. He frequently is asked why vehicles need lidars
when they have cameras and radar. Velodyne in 2020

22 January 2021

Phil Armsrud

The buzz about solid-state: " A few years ago, there was a lot of talk
about the importance of getting to solid-state because of its inherent reliability versus the electro-mechanical lidars and versus MEMs (micro-electromechanical)-based lidar. The automakers want good performance at a
fair price for their vehicle applications, whether it's solid state or not. "

in short-range, lower-cost lidars. And, if a
more-expensive unit's performance means
I don't have to put multiple lidars on my
vehicle, it can justify the price. Also, how
does that price compare to competing
technologies like imaging radar sensors?
A robotaxi or people-mover operating in
a geo-fenced area is a very different use
case than driving in your own car from
Manhattan to L.A. on a variety of roads. "

Velodyne Lidar

Phil Amsrud, senior principal analyst, Semiconductors, IHS Markit,
spoke recently with Autonomous Vehicle Engineering about the trend
toward solid-state lidar technology and the industry's need for lower-cost systems. Some of his insights:

IHS Markit semiconductor expert Phil Armsrud.

conducted a test comparing what he termed " a stateof-the-art " camera/radar system with a Velarray-based
system incorporating Velodyne software.
" We just took a simple function - pedestrian automatic emergency braking - but we wanted to test it in the
nighttime, " he said. " When we did that, we saw that the
state-of-art camera/radar-based system failed more often
than not. But the Velarray was able to detect the pedestrian and apply the brakes every single time at night. That's
the power of lidar - it brings its own light to the party. "

Fabrinet production

Design for manufacturability (DFM) and scalability
were key tenets of the Velarray program, according
to Gopalan. " For mass adoption of lidar, the product
must be producible in the hundreds of thousands, with
multiple sources for the key components with automotive-sized manufacturing footprints, " he said.
As of early November 2020, the new H800 was in
early production on Velodyne's pilot line in San Jose.
" The line is running at full capacity and we're bringing
up a line with our manufacturing partner Fabrinet in
Thailand as well, to manufacture this at scale, " Gopalan
said. Fabrinet is considered the leading contract manufacturer for electro-optical systems.
For automotive lidar to become ubiquitous, the
cost to the OEM and the end price of the technology are
critical. " Velodyne's vision is to improve and democratize vehicle safety across the entire segment, " Gopalan
said. " That's the reason we're working hard to provide
affordable ADAS technology to the marketplace. " ■

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING

Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2021