CES 2022 | Semi-solid-state LiDAR, the new favorite of assisted driving, debuts

At this year's CES, the "attendance rate" of lidar companies was probably the highest. Many car companies and technology companies took "sick leave" due to the epidemic, but domestic lidar companies such as Robosense, Hesai, and Innovusion, as well as foreign lidar companies such as Velodyne, Luminar, and Ibeo were also present.

The reason for this neat arrangement is largely because the automotive LiDAR market is about to see a big explosion. Assisted driving in urban road scenes will become a necessary skill for smart cars, and for most car companies, LiDAR is a necessary tool to light up this skill.

In the Chinese market alone, in 2022, there will be heavyweight models equipped with laser radars such as GAC Aion LX Plus, NIO ET7, NIO ET5, and Xpeng G9 launched on the market.

Riding on the booming development of intelligent driving, automotive-grade semi-solid-state LiDAR is about to usher in a big explosion in 2022. According to the forecast of consulting firm Yole, by 2026, the market size of automotive LiDAR will reach US$5.7 billion, but according to the current development trend, the actual performance of the market may be much more optimistic than Yole's forecast.

Robosense releases new 128-line product, M1 still takes the center position

At CES 2022, Robosense brought a new 128-line mechanical scanning lidar product, which is mainly used as the main radar for L4 autonomous driving Robotaxi. Currently, the products of autonomous driving technology companies such as Xiangdao Robotaxi and Yuanrong Qixing all use Robosense's mechanical lidar.

The cost of a 128-line mechanical laser radar is very high. The money for one laser radar can buy several houses in Hegang. Relatively speaking, the cost of a semi-solid-state laser radar is much more controllable. Therefore, the automotive-grade semi-solid-state laser radar product M1 is still the protagonist of the booth.

M1 is currently the most popular automotive-grade LiDAR in China, and is also the only MEMS LiDAR (excluding servo motors and rotating mirrors) that can be delivered to vehicles. Currently, the car companies that have officially announced cooperation with Robosense include GAC Aion, WM Motor, and Zeekr. Many other car companies have already been selected but not made public. In total, Robosense has established cooperation with more than 11 car companies.

One of the biggest highlights of M1 is the "gaze function", which can flexibly adjust parameters for highway and urban scenes. When driving at high speed, the resolution in the ROI area is adjusted to obtain a higher point cloud density in the key area in front of the field of view. When driving on urban roads, the frame rate is increased, and the perception of the movement of close-range objects can be more timely and safer.

Luminar officially announces Volvo, humiliating Tesla

Luminar is a representative company of 1550nm light source lidar and has received a large number of orders worldwide. According to data on its official website, it has more than 50 industry partners, including Volvo, SAIC Feifan Automobile, etc.

The biggest advantage of the 1550nm light source is that it can be strongly absorbed by the cornea and lens of the human eye (any light source above 1440nm can be used) and will not reach the retina. The damage caused by laser to the retina is irreversible, but the damage to the cornea and lens can be healed. Therefore, 1550nm has great advantages in terms of human eye safety compared to the conventional 905nm solution.

1550nm light source has the advantage of eye safety, higher power and longer exposure time, so it has obvious advantages in range. At present, if LiDAR wants to achieve a maximum detection distance of 250 meters (under 10% reflectivity), 1550nm light source is almost a must. A longer detection distance means that obstacles in the distance can be discovered earlier, giving the system enough time to make a correct response.

Luminar has already provided lidar for Polestar 3. At this CES, Luminar and Volvo continued to deepen their cooperation, and Volvo will equip a pure electric concept car with Luminar's Iris lidar.

Interestingly, Luminar's official CES homepage also posted a video of Luminar pressing a Tesla to the ground and rubbing it repeatedly. The video tested a Model S, an Audi, and a Lexus equipped with Luminar. The results showed that in various scenarios, only Luminar's models were able to detect the dummies and brake in time, while Tesla and Audi knocked over the dummies without exception.

Velodyne accelerates the implementation of semi-solid-state lidar

There is no doubt that the former lidar giant Velodyne has fallen behind in this wave of automotive-grade products, but fortunately, Velodyne is already accelerating to catch up.

At this year's CES, Velodyne focused on showcasing the automotive-grade semi-solid-state lidar H800 and its supporting development tools. In the Chinese market, Velodyne has been accelerating the construction of a localized service team and is also actively working with OEMs to verify vehicle regulations, but no automaker has yet officially announced the launch of a smart car equipped with the H800.

In addition to the automotive field, Velodyne's lidar is also used in agriculture, industrial robots, planning and other fields, especially mechanical lidar still has a high market share. At CES, Velodyne demonstrated its sensor-based Boston Dynamics Spot mobile robot.

Innovusion releases Robin, a mid-range and short-range LiDAR

As the LiDAR supplier for NIO ET7 and ET5, Innovusion always has its own traffic. At CES 2022, Innovusion not only displayed the semi-solid-state LiDAR Falcon, but also brought a new product, a blind spot radar Robin.

Falcon is a semi-solid-state laser radar that uses a 1550nm light source and a micro-rotating mirror for two-dimensional scanning. Its detection range is the same as Luminar, at 10% reflectivity, it can reach 250 meters. It is very suitable for highway scenarios and can accurately perceive long-distance obstacles.

However, as a long-range laser radar, it is naturally impossible to take into account the short-range perception and cost, so the medium- and short-range radar is an important part of the Innovusion product line. It is like a sniper rifle is very powerful, but if you want to cover all scenarios, you still have to carry a submachine gun to ensure that you can also take care of close combat.

The newly released Robin is only 35 mm in height and can be integrated into the side of the car or the left and right bumpers. Together with the Falcon, it can achieve wider field of view coverage at a lower cost.

Valeo releases third-generation automotive-grade LiDAR

As the world's largest laser radar company, Valeo focused on showcasing the third-generation SCALA laser radar at CES 2022, which will be available in 2024. Different from the previous two generations of micro-rotating mirror solutions, SCALA 3 has begun to enter the MEMS camp. Currently, Valeo's main customers are Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi, and there are no domestic OEM partners.

In addition, Valeo also demonstrated the NFL near-field lidar at CES2022, which uses mechanical scanning to achieve 360-degree laser point cloud coverage. At the same time, the new near-field radar has a smaller blind spot, which can help unmanned logistics vehicles safely perceive the surrounding environment.

Unmanned vehicles are currently also a scenario with a large shipment volume. Domestic giants such as Meituan, Alibaba Cainiao Station, and JD.com have all deployed unmanned logistics delivery vehicles, with hundreds of units deployed in some cities, and the prospects are relatively broad.

Hesai showcases AT128 semi-solid-state laser radar

Hesai AT128 is also a star product in China. Its current public partners include HiPhi, Ideal, Jidu, and Lotus, and mass deliveries are expected to begin in 2022.

AT128 does not use the dynamic ROI adjustment featured by Robosense and Innovusion. The focus of the product is on the frequency of over 1.53 million points per second, and the 905nm light source it brings to achieve a maximum detection distance of 200m at a reflectivity of 10%, thereby achieving detection of long-distance obstacles at a lower cost.

In conclusion:

Compared with the global market, China's smart car market is very competitive, which has led to China's lidar manufacturers also being very competitive and the competition is very fierce. But at the same time, because the market is large enough, everyone can achieve good development.

In 2022, the domestic automotive-grade lidar market has basically formed a situation of competition among Robosense, Hesai, Innovusion, and Huawei, while overseas, Luminar is the only dominant player.

According to conservative estimates, models with explosive potential such as NIO ET7, ET5, Ideal X01, Zhiji L7, and Xiaopeng G9 alone will contribute more than 200,000 units in shipments in 2022. Together with other models, the annual shipment volume will definitely be more than 250,000 units. This is probably the case when several manufacturers have fully utilized their production capacity.

The quantity of LiDAR has increased, and the next step is to make good use of LiDAR to allow consumers to experience safer assisted driving functions, which is what car companies should work on.