LiDARs in China

ResearchInChina publishes "Global and China In-vehicle LiDAR Industry Report, 2017-2022." Few quotes:

"Global automotive LiDAR sensor market was USD300 million in 2017, and is expected to reach USD1.4 billion in 2022 and soar to USD4.4 billion in 2027 in the wake of large-scale deployment of L4/5 private autonomous cars. Mature LiDAR firms are mostly foreign ones, such as Valeo and Quanergy. Major companies that have placed LiDARs on prototype autonomous driving test cars are Velodyne, Ibeo, Luminar, Valeo and SICK.

Chinese LiDAR companies lag behind key foreign peers in terms of time of establishment and technology. LiDARs are primarily applied to autonomous logistic vehicles (JD and Cainiao) and self-driving test cars (driverless vehicles of Beijing Union University and Moovita). Baidu launched Pandora (co-developed with Hesai Technologies), the sensor integrating LiDAR and camera, in its Apollo 2.5 hardware solution.

According to ADAS and autonomous driving plans of major OEMs, most of them will roll out SAE L3 models around 2020. Overseas OEMs: PAS SAE L3 (2020), Honda SAE L3 (2020), GM SAE L4 (2021+), Mercedes Benz SAE L3 (Mercedes Benz new-generation S in 2021), BMW SAE L3 (2021). Domestic OEMs: SAIC SAE L3 (2018-2020), FAW SAE L3 (2020), Changan SAE L3 (2020), Great Wall SAE L3 (2020), Geely SAE L3 (2020), and GAC SAE L3 (2020). The L3-and-above models with LiDAR are expected to share 10% of ADAS models in China in 2022. The figure will hit 50% in 2030."

13NewsNow talks about Tesla denying the need in LiDAR altogether: "Tesla has looked to cameras and radar — without lidar — to do much of the work needed for its Autopilot driver assistance system.

But other automakers and tech companies rushing to develop autonomous cars — Waymo, Ford and General Motors, for instance — are betting on lidar.

"Tesla's trying to do it on the cheap," [Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst with Navigant Research] said. "They're trying to take the cheap approach and focus on software. The problem with software is it's only as good as the data you can feed it."