Velodyne (LiDAR) loses its CEO

[Daniel in SD]

I would agree. Vision-only is good enough for L2 ADAS. However, Huawei and Velodyne are working on ADAS grade lidar that is less than $100 a piece and L2 ADAS would only need 1 front lidar. At that price, manufacturers could still add a front lidar to their L2 ADAS for the added redundancy. At that price why not?

How much does that $100 improve user experience? Manufacturers are always trying to cut costs.

Since this thread speculates that the CEO left due to poor demands, so what are factors that would pick up the demands: To pick up demands, LIDARs should be available to anyone who wants to use it and not just a specific niche of Robotaxis.

On the other hand, manufacturers from China are usually cheaper than our domestic ones in the US so how does this factor in making LIDAR cheap to kick off the demands?

Collision avoidance requirements that can't be met with RADAR or camera based systems or L3 highway systems existing.
The issue with current collision avoidance system testing is that they are standardized tests so it's relatively easy to design a system that passes. I'm not sure how one would regulate real world performance so this seems like a less likely scenario for universal LIDAR.
L3 highway systems would be awesome and I think people would gladly pay for the additional hardware cost of LIDAR. I'm not sure if this is going to happen any time soon though so I probably wouldn't invest in LIDAR companies.

 

[Tam]

...The issue with current collision avoidance system testing is that they are standardized tests so it's relatively easy to design a system that passes...

It's a start to have standardized testing for collision avoidance technology.

Current tests like AEB shows that although some companies pass, they still collide with pedestrians consistently in some scenarios:

• "When encountering a child darting from between two cars, with the vehicle traveling at 20 mph, a collision occurred 89% of the time."
• "Immediately following a right hand turn, all of the test vehicles collided with the adult pedestrian." All."

That's 100% collisions in a right-hand turn for all tested car companies.

AAA tests hits versus misses in AEB systems

We're not there yet. Down the road we're about to reach 2020 but down the real road, a pedestrian is moving at a point when emergency braking must occur— yet vehicles aren't equipped with adequate detection technology to avoid calamity.

techxplore.com

I think the problem is: There's no LIDAR car tested (because no consumer LIDAR cars are sold in the US as of today).

In the meantime, I assume that LIDAR is good at accident avoidance because the media hasn't gone to town to expose that Waymo collided with an obstacle in 50 square miles in Chandler, AZ since 2019 (driverless) or different cities since 2009 (with a safety officer behind the wheel).

 

[mark95476]

The Audi Etron had Lidar, at least initally.

It's a start to have standardized testing for collision avoidance technology.

Current tests like AEB shows that although some companies pass, they still collide with pedestrians consistently in some scenarios:

• "When encountering a child darting from between two cars, with the vehicle traveling at 20 mph, a collision occurred 89% of the time."
• "Immediately following a right hand turn, all of the test vehicles collided with the adult pedestrian." All."

That's 100% collisions in a right-hand turn for all tested car companies.

AAA tests hits versus misses in AEB systems

We're not there yet. Down the road we're about to reach 2020 but down the real road, a pedestrian is moving at a point when emergency braking must occur— yet vehicles aren't equipped with adequate detection technology to avoid calamity.

techxplore.com

I think the problem is: There's no LIDAR car tested (because no consumer LIDAR cars are sold in the US as of today).

In the meantime, I assume that LIDAR is good at accident avoidance because the media hasn't gone to town to expose that Waymo collided with an obstacle in 50 square miles in Chandler, AZ since 2019 (driverless) or different cities since 2009 (with a safety officer behind the wheel).

 

[Tam]

...The Audi Etron had Lidar, at least initally....

Thanks for the reference since 2019. It's unknown whether Audi will get its cars with LIDAR to the market anytime soon:

Audi E-Tron Cars Equipped with Autonomous LiDARs | Unmanned Systems Technology

Aeva, a developer of sensing systems for autonomous vehicles, has announced a partnership with AID-Autonomous Intelligent Driving GmbH, a wholly-owned...

www.unmannedsystemstechnology.com

 

[Bladerskb]

It's picking up but still very slowly:

China: Q3 2021 Xpeng XPILOT 3.5 with 2 lidars: post-susidized prices ranges $24,737.17 - $35,559.68 (RMB160,000 – 230,000) depending on trims: Only 2 out of 6 trims would have LIDARs

2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS with 130 MPH Autosteer

Also Nio ET7 (Q1 2022), Huawei ArcFox Alpha S (Q4 2021), Lucid Air (Q42021), Volvo (2022) the list goes on...

 

[Bladerskb]

It's a start to have standardized testing for collision avoidance technology.

Current tests like AEB shows that although some companies pass, they still collide with pedestrians consistently in some scenarios:

• "When encountering a child darting from between two cars, with the vehicle traveling at 20 mph, a collision occurred 89% of the time."
• "Immediately following a right hand turn, all of the test vehicles collided with the adult pedestrian." All."

That's 100% collisions in a right-hand turn for all tested car companies.

AAA tests hits versus misses in AEB systems

We're not there yet. Down the road we're about to reach 2020 but down the real road, a pedestrian is moving at a point when emergency braking must occur— yet vehicles aren't equipped with adequate detection technology to avoid calamity.

techxplore.com

I think the problem is: There's no LIDAR car tested (because no consumer LIDAR cars are sold in the US as of today).

In the meantime, I assume that LIDAR is good at accident avoidance because the media hasn't gone to town to expose that Waymo collided with an obstacle in 50 square miles in Chandler, AZ since 2019 (driverless) or different cities since 2009 (with a safety officer behind the wheel).

The problem isn't the sensing, its the driving policy (planning and control).

 

[mark95476]

So Velodyne lost their Chairman as well. Something about rats and sinking ships...

Velodyne Lidar Chairman Joseph Culkin steps down from role for health reasons

Velodyne Lidar Inc. undefined said Monday that Joseph Culkin will step down as chairman of the board for health reasons, but will remain an "active" director...

www.marketwatch.com

These SPACs are looking very similar to the dot-com rush about two decades ago. I guess we'll see how this turns out in a few years.