Velodyne Lidar is among the companies featured in a Photonics Spectra story on lidar in the automotive industry by Michael Eisenstein.

The article starts by noting how “advancements in sensors based on light detection and ranging (lidar) are helping to pave the way” for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

It quotes Alexis Debray, technology and market analyst at Yole Développement, saying:

“The growth that we had forecast is happening now. We expect the lidar market will double in the next five years, and this is mainly due to ADAS applications.”

The story adds Yole predicts ADAS applications will fuel a $2.3 billion global market for lidar sensors by 2026. With market growth in sight, the piece states “a handful of vehicles are currently equipped with such sensors, this situation is due to change within the next few years, as virtually every major auto manufacturer is now making a play for the ADAS space.”

Picking up on this point, Laura Wrisley, our senior vice president of worldwide sales, observes, “If we’re talking to [automotive] OEMs today, it’s usually about a program that scales in 2024 or 2025.”

When the article turned to the lidar technologies on the market, Laura discussed the benefits of rotational sensor technology, saying, “It’s inexpensive, and it offers the best balance of overall system complexity and performance in terms of range and resolution.”

In assessing the durability of rotational systems, the article has Laura citing “Velodyne has found the life expectancy of rotational-scanning lidar systems to be comparable to that of the vehicles to which they are coupled.”

Velodyne strongly believes the high, functional-safety levels required for automotive can only be solved with lidar. Our lidar sensors, in conjunction with our Vella software, can dramatically improve safety in ADAS and autonomous vehicles.