There are domestic research institutes and lidar manufacturers that are independently researching and developing the transmitting chip and receiving chip, but they are in the initial stage, and the products have not been finalized. "Vehicle lidar is a niche industry. In recent years, there has been a market with the development of domestic L2 autonomous driving. The industry has insufficient technical reserves and insufficient human input." Jin Yuanhao said. The company he works for is a 16-wire lidar transmitter chip, but it also uses low-cost products to grab market share in the laser pointer.
The number of lines is the same, and the effect of different products is not the same. According to Jin Yuanhao, parameters such as accuracy, stability, and resolution are still different from mainstream products. In particular, the stability of domestic lidar is relatively inadequate, and the automotive industry has extremely high safety requirements and long test times. The originally small market makes it harder to find traces of domestic products.
Lidar is expensive. One is necessary and the other is tight. This is a complete seller's market. Velodyne 16-line products still cost $ 4,000 after halving the price at the beginning of the year. The 64-line products (also the highest level currently applicable to the market) on Baidu smart cars are about $ 80,000, which is more expensive than ordinary cars. Price is the obstacle to mass production and commercialization of driverless cars.
Because of this, domestic laser pointer radars have to tackle key problems. According to Zhang Zhiwu, Beike Tianhui's 16-line product sold for 50,000 yuan last year and less than 30,000 yuan this year, which is equivalent to the discount of Velodyne 16 line. "Once it is done, the price will be cut." Outside the bargaining space, once autonomous driving moves from testing to mass production, the lidar market is huge, and domestic products cannot be handed over.
New technical solutions are also emerging. "Lidar is developing in the direction of solidification. Domestic manufacturers need to seize the new direction and develop synchronously with their foreign counterparts." Huang Wuling said. Compared to the traditional 360-degree mechanical rotating laser pointers radar, solid-state lidar is a revolutionary technology that reads and writes data based on electronic components, eliminating mechanical rotating components. On this new track, domestic manufacturers can stand on the same starting line as their foreign counterparts.