China takes the lead in establishing ISO automotive LiDAR working group, with Hesai experts as group leaders

Recently, the kick-off meeting of the ISO International Standard Pre-research Working Group (ISO/TC22/SC32/AHG1) for vehicle-mounted laser radar, led by China and co-led by Germany, was officially held. The project was led by an expert representative from Hesai Technology, and nearly ten expert representatives from China, Germany, France, and Japan attended the kick-off meeting. The experts at the meeting discussed the project status and China's proposal, and initially reached a consensus on improving the standard framework based on China's proposal, and established the next work plan. The successful convening of the kick-off meeting marks the official launch of the ISO/PWI 13228 "Road Vehicle Laser Radar Test Method" standard pre-research work.

ISO/TC22/SC32/AHG1 working group was formally established

According to a research report by CICC, the global market size of front-mounted automotive LiDAR is expected to reach 106.6 billion yuan by 2025. However, there is currently no international standard in the field of LiDAR. There are large differences in the descriptions of LiDAR performance by different countries and companies using different standards, making it difficult to compare or evaluate products. At the same time, mass-produced models equipped with LiDAR will be launched intensively in the next two years. As a core sensing component, LiDAR can provide a higher level of safety redundancy for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), but since there is no unified international standard for reference when selecting LiDAR products, there may be safety risks. Therefore, the formulation of international standards for LiDAR has become an urgent matter.

The formulation of ISO/PWI 13228 "Test Methods for Road Vehicle LiDAR" will have an important impact on the development of the global LiDAR industry: First, the standard will provide standardized vehicle-mounted LiDAR performance descriptions for countries around the world, and provide a unified yardstick for upstream and downstream companies to compare and evaluate LiDAR products; second, it will standardize the test methods for key performance of vehicle-mounted LiDAR, reduce the risk of perception failures in autonomous vehicles during driving, and improve road vehicle safety; third, it will guide countries to conduct more standardized management of the vehicle-mounted LiDAR market, and ensure that LiDAR products entering the market meet international basic standards; fourth, it will reach a consensus on the definition of vehicle-mounted LiDAR terminology and technical specifications, and promote knowledge exchange and technical cooperation in the global LiDAR industry.

As a representative of China, Hesai Technology submitted a proposal on LiDAR standards to ISO in June 2021. In December 2021, 29 member countries of ISO/TC22/SC32 voted to establish the AHG1 working group, with Hesai Technology experts as group leader, CATARC experts and Valeo (Germany) experts as deputy group leaders, and many international leading companies such as Denso, Bosch, Sony, Nissan, Renault, and ZF participating in the process to jointly promote the formulation of international LiDAR standards. As a global leader in autonomous driving LiDAR, Hesai has fully exerted its industry leadership, proposed Chinese solutions to international standards, and contributed Chinese wisdom to promote the healthy development of the global LiDAR industry.

A leader in the formulation of LiDAR standards at home and abroad

In addition to ISO international standards, Hesai Technology is also actively leading and promoting the normalization of automotive LiDAR at home and abroad, providing important reference benchmarks for future pre-installation mass production cooperation between automobile OEMs and LiDAR manufacturers, and also contributing to the development of the industry.

Internationally, in February 2020, Hesai initiated the UL4700 proposal and incorporated it into the US national standard. UL is the most authoritative non-profit safety testing and certification organization in the United States, and UL4700 is the first standard initiated by a Chinese company in UL. In the STP working group subsequently established, Hesai is the only Chinese lidar company organization, and other participating companies include Bosch, Continental, Intel, Motional, etc. In February 2022, Hesai also joined the International Electrotechnical Commission IEC TC76 Standards Committee on behalf of China to participate in the discussion, update and formulation of the IEC 60825 optical radiation safety series standards. Other participants include leading companies such as Bosch and Apple and international authoritative testing organizations.

In China, in 2019, Hesai became a member unit of the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Optical Radiation Safety and Laser Equipment (SAC/TC284). In addition, in October 2021, under the guidance of the Electronics and Electromagnetic Compatibility Subcommittee of the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Automobiles (SAC/TC114/SC29), Hesai, as the lead unit and Baidu, as the co-lead unit, jointly took charge of the pre-research work of GB/T "Performance Requirements and Test Methods for Automotive LiDAR", and collaborated with more than 30 industry-leading companies and institutions to promote the implementation of automotive LiDAR standards in my country. In terms of industry standards, Hesai is also responsible for leading the pre-research work of the two standards, mechanical and rotating mirror, to further promote the standardization of the domestic LiDAR industry.

A pioneer in the field of LiDAR safety

While actively promoting the formulation of relevant standards for automotive LiDAR, Hesai has also continued to delve into the field of LiDAR safety and take the lead step by step. In terms of functional safety, Hesai has launched the world's first LiDAR that has obtained ISO 26262 ASIL B functional safety product certification. In order to create this "certified" LiDAR product, Hesai introduced a third-party authoritative certification company, Germany's SGS-TÜV, to conduct an in-depth inspection of the entire product process. After nearly 10,000 failure analyses, more than 300 work results and 28 months of several rounds of iterations, it has achieved safety guarantees that meet standard requirements. In addition, Hesai also published the country's first automotive electronics functional safety book "Automotive Electronics Functional Safety Practical Application", edited by the director of Hesai's safety and quality engineering department, and co-authored by Hesai's safety team and industry experts.

Left: ISO 26262 ASIL B product certification;

Right: "Practical Application of Automotive Electronics Functional Safety"

In addition to functional safety, future intelligent connected vehicles must also address all risks related to network security and expected functional safety before they can be delivered and used in large quantities. The integrated development of the three safety systems goes to a higher dimension than just functional safety. While some companies in the industry have not even perfected functional safety, Hesai has taken the lead and entered the "three-in-one" stage of functional safety, expected functional safety, and network security, covering the entire product life cycle with system safety, including concept pre-research, system development, hardware development, software development, production operations, after-sales support and other links, providing strong security support for large-scale mass production and delivery.

Hesai's "three-in-one" security system

In the future, Hesai will continue to use its accumulated technology and experience in the field of LiDAR to promote the standardization of the LiDAR industry. At the same time, it will continue to make full efforts in product functional safety, expected functional safety, and network security, and strive to establish a high-standard safety system for the entire product series to ensure the safe operation of autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance.