cnTechPost, EqualOcean, NaijaTechNews, Observer Network, GizmoChina, Baidu: Huawei optoelectronics R&D center in Wihan employing 10,000 people develops automotive LiDAR, according to Wang Jun, president of the recently established Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU. The goal is to create a 100-line LIDAR in the short term.The future plans include cost reduction to $200 or even $100.
Xu Zhijun, Huawei's rotating chairman, says that Huawei will build LIDAR, millimeter-wave radar and other smart car core sensors to create a new sensor ecology.
With that massive investment, Huawei competes against about 130+ smaller LiDAR companies. When combined, these companies probably have the same 10,000 people employed, give or take. So, there is a competition of 10K-people-strong well organized army of Huawei designers against 130+ smaller teams scattered across the globe and exploring different ideas. It would be interesting to see who wins in the end.
We need Mr Trump to stop them!
ReplyDeleteHuawei has design centers all over the world and a lot of automotive R&D is driven by Europe and Asia - I don't think it'll be easy to stop them. This is a crazy investment! 10,000 engineers - that's maybe 1 billion USD/year just in salaries... wow!
DeleteHonestly, I do not think the number is reasonable and I would guess this is a misunderstaning. If you read the sources again "Huawei has an optoelectronics-focused R&D center in Wuhan with more than 10,000 people. Now, it is developing a lidar system in-house".
DeleteIt never says all the engineers are working on Lidar. I would assume the main focus of this R&D center is other projects (5G and network related optoelectronics, mobile phone cameras, ...)
That doesn't change the fact that having a 10.000 people R&D for optoelectronics is still very impressive, even if it is not all for Lidars and they sure should have a vast competence pool to draw from.
True, their wording is a bit ambiguous. Om the other hand, Huawei is looking for a good use of its vast design resources since they can't be used for TSMC-manufactured chips anymore. LiDAR seems to be a good market opportunity, if they are able to do it right. So, they might put all their free design teams to develop LiDAR chips, system, and optics.
Deleteit is in Wuhan, where COVID break out
ReplyDeleteWuhan is a major photonics center in China
DeleteIt only takes one or a few creative minds to invent things. But 10,000 workers can copy things fast!
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is somebody to copy from. All solutions now are either too expensive or under-performing, or, sometimes, both.
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