Pure solid-state blind-filling radar is about to be launched, and Hesai continues to lead the lidar track

On the road to the popularization of vehicle-mounted lidar, domestic lidar manufacturers are occupying an increasingly important position, such as Hesai Technology.

As one of the major players on the local LiDAR track, Hesai Technology has been actively promoting the large-scale application of automotive LiDAR through continuous innovation in the field of underlying components and chips in the past few years.

Its mechanical rotating "ace" product Pandar series has gained nearly 60% market share in the global L4 autonomous driving lidar market.

The star product AT128 for the mass-produced ADAS market has been officially released in August 2021. So far, it has received mass production quotas of millions of units from many mainstream car companies, and has been widely recognized by the market. At present, the product has begun to be used on a large scale. Stable delivery.

On this basis, Hesai Technology recently announced that it has officially launched the pure solid-state short-range blind-filling lidar-FT120 based on the newly upgraded third-generation chip. This means that in the future, Hesai Technology will be able to provide OEMs with a complete 3D environment sensing solution through the AT128+FT120 combination, helping them better achieve vehicle-side integrated perception.

According to Hesai Technology CEO Li Yifan, the FT120 has so far received orders from multiple OEMs for a total of more than one million units, and is expected to be mass-produced and delivered in the second half of 2023.

FT120 explosion diagram, picture source: Hesai Technology

FT120 is a “hit” after its release

On the lidar track, Hesai Technology seems to have been half a beat behind its competitors. This is true for the AT128, and the same is true for the FT120.

However, with the release of new products, Hesai may be the only one that has announced a target score of over one million units and can achieve mass production within one year of release.

So, what exactly is the charm of FT120?

First, this is a true pure solid-state lidar.

The laser emission and reception of the FT120 are completely completed through the chip. The total number of components is greatly reduced compared with traditional lidar. There are no moving parts inside, thus greatly improving product reliability, production efficiency and mass production consistency.

Image source: Hesai Technology

Based on the independently developed E-Scanning pure solid-state electronic scanning technology, Hesai integrates an "area array" consisting of tens of thousands of laser receiving channels on a single chip, realizing a leap from 1D to 2D scanning methods. Not only that, unlike traditional Flash technology solutions, FT120 can also control the emission time and direction of the light source. Hesai calls it a "high-end version of Flash", so it can achieve higher flexibility.

Another advantage brought by the high degree of internal integration is that it ensures excellent performance while being very compact - the minimum exposed window size of FT120 is only 70 mm x 50 mm, which can be seamlessly embedded on both sides or around the body, and is flexible according to actual needs. Installed on both sides of the fenders, air intake grille, rear bumper, etc.

In fact, some lidar manufacturers have previously released pure solid-state lidar, but none of them have achieved large-scale mass production in the mass production car market. At present, FT120 is expected to be the first to break this "deadlock".

Second, it has excellent performance.

FT120 has the advantages of a 100° x 75° ultra-wide-angle field of view and zero blind zone. Under the 10% reflectivity standard, it can measure distances up to 30m and has a maximum range of 100m. Perhaps in terms of distance measurement, the FT120 is not as good as the AT128, but in terms of blind filling, the performance is sufficient.

Previously, although semi-solid lidar technology has been quite mature, it is undeniable that the vertical field of view of semi-solid lidar is usually not large. If it is used to fill blind spots on both sides, there may be problems with the perception of low objects near the vehicle body. Missing, in addition, blind-filling lidar usually requires multiple units, and it is not cost-effective to use semi-solid lidar.

The release of FT120 can be said to have made up for the "shortcomings" of this scene.

The point frequency of 192,000 points/second (in single echo mode) and the global resolution of 160 (H) x 120 (V) allow this lidar to detect rich object details and sense objects at high altitudes. Street signs, railings, three-dimensional garage mezzanines, etc. can also detect low children, pets, cones, zebra crossings, etc., and grasp surrounding environment information in real time.

Image source: Hesai Technology

In addition, in scenarios such as intersection turning, vehicle jamming, active overtaking, and automatic parking, FT120 can also help smart cars "see" surrounding road conditions in real time to avoid danger.

This means that with the help of FT120, future assisted driving systems will be able to better cope with various complex urban conditions, which is precisely the focus of the current autonomous driving industry.

Chipization is the key to victory

According to relevant statistics, the number of laser radars installed as standard equipment in China's passenger car market last year was less than 10,000, and this year it has reached tens of thousands.

According to the current market situation, this number will continue to grow, and eventually the number of laser radars installed in the passenger car market throughout the year may exceed 100,000. In 2023, under optimistic assumptions, the assembly volume is expected to further reach 500,000 units.

There is no doubt that Hesai will be an important promoter of this mass production trend.

But this is actually not surprising. As early as when Hesai decided not to be a simple lidar integration supplier, today's results were destined.

In the era of traditional mechanical lidar, lidar manufacturers mainly integrated systems by purchasing various components from suppliers. As a result, the mechanical design barriers of lidar itself were not very high, and it was difficult for companies to have own core technology, and it is difficult to achieve differentiation.

"If we only act as an integrated supplier and purchase parts from other companies to build lidar, the industry's technology may eventually become the same in the process of convergence. This is very possible in our opinion." Li Yifan express.

Based on this consideration, Hesai chose to develop the “engine” of self-developed lidar, which is chip integration, drawing on the experience of major vehicle companies in the era of fuel vehicles that would defend barriers through self-developed engines.

As we all know, the most critical thing about lidar is the transceiver module. The ranging capability, accuracy, point frequency, power consumption and size of lidar all depend on the transceiver module. The transceiver module is actually an electronic component, that is, photoelectric conversion + complex signal processing module, which has a lot of room for optimization.

Image source: Hesai Technology

If some of these components are integrated together, it will bring a series of benefits: significantly reducing the number of components, improving product quality, reducing costs, simplifying the supply chain, and optimizing system performance.

Therefore, in the past few years, Hesai has been committed to realizing lidar technology innovation through self-developed chips. The current results are obvious. Hesai has basically doubled the performance of lidar in two years.

The AT128, based on Hesai's second-generation chip, realizes the "line-in-line" integration of 128 sets of laser receiving channels on a chip of a few centimeters, and can achieve ultra-high-definition scanning of the surrounding environment at a frequency of over 1.53 million points per second. Both in terms of product performance and cost, there have been significant optimizations.

The FT120, developed based on the third-generation chip, integrates an area array composed of tens of thousands of laser receiving channels on a single chip, further improving the integration of the product.

According to Li Yifan, Hesai is currently also actively promoting the research and development of next-generation lidar products. Through self-developed chip technology, it is expected that by 2026, lidar performance will be improved tenfold.

Manufacturing is also part of R&D

After several years of entrepreneurship, Hesai has done a lot of things that have small short-term benefits but big long-term benefits. They seem to be of low value in the short term but seem to be necessary in the long term. Chipization is one thing, and self-built factories are another.

How committed is Hesai to building its own factory? According to Li Yifan, when the team only had more than 20 people, Hesai arranged for some employees to engage in manufacturing. Until now, Hesai has never used OEM in its history.

In Hesai's view, for vehicle-mounted lidar, a product that has never experienced large-scale mass production and delivery in history, rapid iteration and quality control are crucial, and both of these are directly related to production. The quality is easy to understand, because the self-built factory can control all production links from the source, and can even optimize and improve the production process in a timely manner to ensure large-scale, high-quality production and delivery of lidar products that meet the strict standards of the OEM. .

Image source: Hesai Technology

In many cases, the optimization and iteration of products also needs to be driven in reverse through production, forming a closed loop of R&D. "R&D needs to be verified through production. Correspondingly, problems encountered in production are essentially solved through R&D, not through the production process. These two links are interconnected." Li Yifan said, This is where Hesai’s development concept of “manufacturing is part of R&D” comes from.