Hesai Technology releases new generation automotive-grade LiDAR at CES 2022

On January 5, Hesai Technology made its debut at CES 2022, the world's largest consumer electronics event, and publicly exhibited for the first time its automotive-grade semi-solid-state lidar AT128, which has been ordered in millions of units and is equipped with a new generation of self-developed chips. It also launched the new close-range and ultra-wide-angle lidar QT128.

Hesai AT128, a culmination of all the best technologies from previous generations, has won numerous OEM mass production orders

The automotive-grade long-range semi-solid-state laser radar AT128 is a main laser radar launched by Hesai for the ADAS pre-installation market. It carries the company's comprehensive core research and development results in optics, mechanics, electronics, software, chips, and safety accumulated over the years, and has become the culmination of Hesai's previous flagship technologies.

Hesai AT128 product picture

Hesai and Lumentum have joined hands to bring the cutting-edge technology originally used in the consumer electronics field to the LiDAR field for the first time, and have greatly improved product integration through the design of a new generation of LiDAR based on VCSEL array light sources. This also makes Hesai AT128 the industry's first long-range ADAS semi-solid-state LiDAR based on VCSEL.

AT128 is equipped with Hesai's latest generation of self-developed automotive-grade chips. A single circuit board integrates 128 scanning channels, realizing chip-based solid-state electronic scanning. Hesai AT128 replaces the bulky discrete device light source of traditional LiDAR with a VCSEL planar light source embedded in the chip, significantly reducing the manufacturing cost of LiDAR, thereby greatly improving the competitiveness of LiDAR solutions in the ADAS market. At the same time, this also greatly simplifies the originally complex multi-channel assembly and adjustment process, greatly improving the production speed of the automated production line, and obtaining nearly perfect and consistent products that can be mass-produced.

Chip technology also solves the problem of large size and poor appearance of traditional high-performance LiDAR. Hesai AT128 has a thin and compact appearance. For mass production car manufacturers, its installation location and design scheme are very flexible. It can be easily embedded in the car body and seamlessly integrated into the overall vehicle appearance design. For example, the following figure shows four AT128 installation schemes:

Hesai AT128 loading plan example

Not only has the size been successfully reduced, the performance and reliability of AT128 are also unambiguous. The core performance indicators recognized by the laser radar industry are: ranging capability, resolution, and accuracy. Hesai AT128 uses a highly integrated chip-based transceiver module to maximize the performance of 128-line semi-solid laser radar.

First of all, in terms of ranging capability, Hesai AT128 not only has an ultra-strong ranging capability of 200 meters @ 10%, but also the farthest ground line can reach 70 meters, which is far ahead of other similar semi-solid products. It can provide the necessary perception capabilities for mass-produced vehicles to achieve stable and reliable L3+ADAS functions.

In terms of resolution and accuracy, Hesai AT128 also "stands out from the crowd". The point frequency of AT128 exceeds 1.53 million points per second, breaking the point frequency record of 200m long-range semi-solid-state LiDAR. Higher point frequency means that LiDAR can capture more effective details of objects, which means higher resolution. AT128 can achieve image-level resolution, and the comparison is very obvious from the following figure:

Comparison of AT128 and other typical semi-solid-state lidars in detecting 200-meter objects

Point cloud effect of Hesai AT128

On the other hand, reliability is also one of the key factors affecting the entry of LiDAR into the mass production market. Compared with the technology of achieving the so-called "equivalent XXX lines" through single-beam laser two-dimensional high-frequency scanning and point cloud stitching, AT128 uses chip technology plus a stable and reliable one-dimensional rotating mirror scanning solution to achieve "true 128 lines" of vertical solid-state electronic scanning and horizontal low-speed one-dimensional scanning. This avoids the impact of two-dimensional high-speed mechanical scanning on product reliability and life. While ensuring ultra-high reliability, the point cloud is achieved in a complete field of view (FOV) of 120° horizontal and 25.4° vertical directions without splicing and uniform distribution. The structured data of the camera can bring great convenience to the later autonomous driving algorithm.

In addition, as a pre-installed mass-produced LiDAR positioned as automotive-grade ultra-high reliability, AT128 complies with the full-process closed-loop automotive-grade requirements from design to verification:

All core components are automotive grade devices (meeting AEC-Q and other relevant standards);

In the DV stage, more than 50 automotive-grade tests covering electrical, mechanical, climate, sealing, material, and electromagnetic compatibility were conducted in accordance with international OEM standards;

Obtained the Class1 Eye Safety CB certificate for laser eye safety;

Functional safety design covers detailed FMEA/FTA analysis of all optical, mechanical, electrical and software subsystems, and comprehensively covers thousands of failure modes and response strategies. Through perfect failure analysis and fault injection, a complete fault diagnosis function accurate to each line is designed for AT128, with a fault coverage rate of more than 90% and a fault response time of less than or equal to 100ms.

The SOP mass production delivery of AT128 will meet the requirements of functional safety ASIL-B(D).

In other words, for mass-produced vehicles that need to be embedded in the body, choosing Hesai AT128 semi-solid-state LiDAR can achieve the ultimate in cost, performance, and reliability. With its comprehensive performance advantages and highly integrated cost advantages, Hesai AT128 has been designated for pre-installed mass production by more than millions of OEMs around the world, including Ideal, Jidu, HiPhi, and Lotus, and will be fully mass-produced and delivered in the second half of this year at Hesai's "Maxwell" super factory with a planned production capacity of one million units.

This year, a number of new models equipped with Hesai AT128 will be officially launched into the market, so please stay tuned.

Breaking through the performance ceiling of similar radars, QT128 is a new all-round blind spot compensation tool

At this year's CES, Hesai also launched the new generation of automotive-grade 128-line ultra-wide-angle short-range LiDAR QT128. This is a blind spot radar designed for autonomous driving applications such as L4 robotaxi and robotruck. It has an ultra-wide vertical field of view of 105° and can clearly identify people and objects at close range around the vehicle body. QT128 will be mass-produced and delivered in the first quarter of 2023.

QT128 has the following highlights:

1) 105-degree vertical field of view, the highest among similar products. By tilting the installation, it can completely cover the vehicle body blind spot, cone barrels, small animals and other low obstacles, and can also detect high places such as stereo garages and high-rise buildings.

2) QT128 has 128 vertical lines, twice the number of the previous generation architecture. Through the line distribution design, the minimum horizontal and vertical resolution of the QT128 encrypted area is 0.4 degrees, which has almost reached the resolution level of the long-range main radar. Even the dynamic movement of a small ping-pong ball can be accurately captured by QT128.

3) High-quality reflectivity information. Compared with the previous generation architecture, QT128 adds effective reflectivity information and ensures high accuracy, greatly improving the recognition and classification capabilities of lane lines, signs, and other objects.

4) Automotive-grade reliability. QT128 follows the automotive-grade product development process from design to verification. Reliability testing is strictly carried out in accordance with top OEM standards, with ultra-high reliability and longer service life.

In short, QT128 has surpassed the top configuration of similar radars in terms of field of view, resolution, and reliability, and is a well-deserved "blind spot compensation weapon" for autonomous driving. Through flexible installation positions, QT128 can be combined with long-range main radar to enable autonomous driving vehicles to obtain a complete 360° field of view that takes into account both near and far distances.

In addition, Hesai also exhibited its full range of products at CES 2022: the "king of machines" - Pandar128, an image-level ultra-high-resolution long-range radar, XT32, a zero-blind-zone high-precision medium-range radar, XT32M2X, a lightweight 300-meter ultra-long-range radar, and the QT series, an ultra-wide-angle short-range blind-spot radar. These products have been widely used in driverless taxis, self-driving trucks, driverless minibuses, driverless delivery robots, smart cities and other applications.