LiDAR Technology

An in-depth look at the remote sensing technology

LiDAR in the autonomous vehicle sector.
Introduction

Self-driving cars are poised to revolutionize the

transportation industry. At the heart of autonomous
technology is LiDAR (light detection and ranging), a vehicle-
vision system that measures distance by illuminating
a target using light and lasers as its primary sensor;
automotive LiDAR sensors are what allow driverless cars to
see. The LiDAR market size is projected to grow from USD
844 million in 2019 to USD 2,273 million by 2024, at a CAGR
of 18.5 percent from 2019 to 2024.

Some researchers claim that, without LiDAR’s capabilities,

self-driving vehicles could not progress much further than
what the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) terms
Autonomy Level 3 capabilities. General Motors, Ford, Audi,
Porsche, Volvo, Google’s subsidiary Waymo and many many
more vehicle manufacturers have integrated or invested
in LiDAR. However, not everyone is convinced that LiDAR
is the superior technology for providing self-driving cars a
360-view. Tesla’s well-known founder Elon Musk has said
that “Anyone relying on LiDAR is doomed.” And he’s backed
up by Tesla’s AI guru Andrej Karpathy who claims that “LiDAR
is a shortcut.”

This eBook provides an in-depth description of LiDAR

technology and its applications. It also lists the leading
LiDAR companies worldwide and looks at what vehicle
manufacturers have invested in or integrated LiDAR.
Furthermore, this eBook provides insights into where the
Automotive LiDAR industry is headed.

LiDAR | 2
Table of Content

4 What is LiDAR, and how does it work?

7 Why LiDAR is superior to other technologies

10 LiDAR is getting cheaper—but it’s still too

expensive for production vehicles

13 Top LiDAR companies in the automotive

industry

17 Snapshot: Japanese LiDAR supplier Pioneer

20 Looking ahead

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What is LiDAR,
and how does it work?

As cars begin to drive on their own, obstacle detection

and avoidance remain critical technical hurdles standing
in the way of fully autonomous operation. LiDAR is one
technology that can enable this, but the development of
low-cost LiDAR systems is still in its infancy.

LiDAR | 4
LiDAR is a remote sensing technology that uses light pulses to detect sudden changes in its
surrounding environment. It enables autonomous vehicles to travel smoothly and avoid collisions.
Similar to radar, LiDAR is a
measurement and range finding
technique originally developed in
the 1960s. Useful for military and
aerospace applications where precise
accuracy over long distances was
needed, this technology ultimately
found its way into meteorology and
robotics.
But LiDAR’s potential application
in vehicles portends a much larger
marketplace that could be worth as
much as $2.5 billion on its own by
2030.
Where does the word LiDAR
originate?
LiDAR stands for Light Detection and
Ranging; originally, the word was a
portmanteau of the words “light” and
“radar.” LiDAR has many applications,
but it’s particularly applicable to self-
driving cars. In fact, it’s likely that
without LiDAR’s capabilities, self-
driving vehicles could not progress
much further than what the Society
of Automotive Engineers (SAE) terms
Autonomy Level 3 capabilities, or
limited “eyes-off driving.”
How it works
LiDAR is a combination of laser
scanning and 3D imaging. Car-based
LiDAR systems make use of invisible,
eye-safe laser beams (low-power
ones, like those used at grocery
store checkout counters). These are
emitted from transmitters attached
to a vehicle and bounce off all objects
located within a maximum of 500
meters. Such objects can be either
stationary or moving.
A typical system, such as those
supplied by industry vendor Velodyne,
LiDAR | 5
uses between eight and 128 individual
laser beams to perform this function.
Processors on the vehicle time how
long the beams take to reflect off
the objects and return to the LiDAR’s
sensors. Then, the system uses
formulas to calculate how far the
objects are away from the vehicle.
By emitting many beams and
constantly scanning the surrounding
environment in 360 degrees, one or
more LiDAR sensors can compile a 3D
image of everything surrounding the
vehicle they’re attached to.
By getting distance data for every
surrounding object, a LiDAR system
can detect if a collision is imminent
and warn a vehicle’s driver as early as
possible. In the near future, signals
could be sent to autonomous driving
systems to automatically activate
steering, braking, acceleration,
and other mechanisms. Thus, a
vehicle could intelligently navigate
around obstacles and/or forestall
collisions. Even if objects are moving
(pedestrians or other vehicles, for
instance), their speed and trajectories
can be calculated and taken into
account.

Sensors are being widely used in the autonomous vehicles to control braking, speeding,
and safety systems in response to changes in the external environment.

LiDAR | 6
Why LiDAR is superior
to other technologies

Lidar is the preferred technology of Waymo, one of the

heavy-hitters in self-driving cars. “LiDAR bounces a laser
off an object at an extremely high rate—millions of pulses
every second—and measures how long the laser takes to
reflect off that surface. This generates a precise, three-
dimensional image of the object, whether a person,
vehicle, aircraft, cloud, or mountain,” says Waymo’s lidar
fact sheet.

LiDAR | 7
In March 2019, Waymo started selling standalone LiDAR sensors.
Because of the way it functions,
LiDAR is often seen as superior to
other environmental sensor systems
that rely on video cameras or radar.
Both of these latter methods are used
for autonomous Advanced Driver-
Assistance Systems (ADAS) functions,
including adaptive cruise control, lane-
keeping, and parking.
One reason for this superiority is
because both cameras and radar still
have blind spots. Another reason
LiDAR can be better is that it scans at
extremely high resolution, and with
decent computing intelligence, it can
potentially identify numerous short-
range objects.
This identification can filter disparate
objects into those that might pose a
threat (such as anything moving, for
instance) and those that are simply
part of the surrounding landscape.
A third reason for LiDAR’s superiority
is that, depending on how advanced
it is, it can work at night or under
harsh weather and environmental
conditions, such as snow, rain, hail,
fog, smoke, etc.
Essentially, the combination of LiDAR
sensing and intelligent decision-
making approximates how the
human brain processes locomotion.
Regardless of whether a person is a
driver in a vehicle, a rider on a bicycle,
or simply a pedestrian on foot, the
brain is constantly taking in visual
information and cues and reassessing
risks from external objects and
obstacles. It then tells the body to
take proactive or reactive action as
necessary to maintain safety while it
continues to move forward.
Most people probably take for granted
how much sensory information
LiDAR | 8
the brain processes and how many piece of garbage blowing across the
separate decisions are involved in daily road, is critical. LiDAR’s high resolution
navigation, but it’s a lot in each case. combined with the intelligence of a
microprocessor can not only protect
Examples of where LiDAR is the life of a vehicle’s driver, but it
beneficial can also safeguard the lives of those
persons traveling or navigating nearby.
The faster a vehicle is moving—and
the faster other moving objects are
Another instance where LiDAR could
approaching—the more valuable a
be beneficial would be changing
computer-assisted system like LiDAR
lanes or passing other vehicles on a
becomes. An extreme example of this
road. Although these processes seem
is a highway interchange or four-way
simple, the amount of “processing” the
intersection where other vehicles are
brain does to be able to affect these
approaching, often at high speed and
actions is substantial. Judging the
from multiple directions.
distance and speed of other moving
vehicles is critical to timing steering,
In situations like this, the ability
braking, and acceleration correctly.
to differentiate between, say, a
motorcycle with a rider and a large

Waymo has developed three LiDAR sensors. The company has been using a medium-range
LiDAR, which is located on top of the car, since the early days of its project. Engineers
there developed a short-range and a long-range LiDAR.

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LiDAR is getting cheaper—
but it’s still too expensive
for production vehicles

LiDAR is quickly becoming a “must-have” technology for

self-driving vehicles. Until now, a large footprint, high
cost, and other limitations have prevented LiDAR from
being easily integrated into production autos. But all this is
about to change as industry players make deals with each
other and rapidly release new products.

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The high costs and low durability of the existing LiDAR technology are the major
factors plaguing the development of the automotive LiDAR market.
This chapters details price points
and specifics of LiDAR integration
as well as going over who the major
industry players are and a timeline of
commercial announcements.
Pricing LiDAR
Although LiDAR has come a long way
since its beginnings in the 1960s, it
is not yet a mature, low-cost, or truly
tiny-footprint technology.
It’s true that the bulky, roof-mounted
LiDAR sensors seen on early self-
driving car prototypes such as those
from Google or Apple are slowly giving
way to low-profile sensors that are
mountable on a car’s hood, fenders, or
front grille.
But the high cost of LiDAR remains a
major obstacle to mass integration.
“One of the biggest roadblocks to
bringing autonomous vehicles to the
mainstream has been the lack of a
high-performance and low-cost LiDAR
that can scale to millions of units per
year,” says Soroush Salehian, the co-
founder of LiDAR sensor maker Aeva.
Until recently, LiDAR sensors and
systems were priced in the thousands
or even tens of thousands of dollars.
However, these price points are
beginning to be broken. In 2016,
Canadian supplier LeddarTech
released an automotive LiDAR sensor
that sold for below $500, a significant
industry first at the time. In 2020,
Velodyne announced it would be
introducing a $100 LiDAR sensor
applicable for use in cars.
Integration of LiDAR
But sensors are only part of a
complete LiDAR system. Hardware and
LiDAR | 11
software are still needed to process
the data LiDAR sensors receive.
Largely because of its high cost,
fleets of so-called “robo-taxis” have
been seen as potential first mass-
scale adopters of LiDAR, rather
than production vehicles meant for
consumers. Irish LiDAR vendor Aptiv,
for instance, is currently helping to
operate a 30-car autonomous taxi
fleet in Las Vegas in partnership with
ride-sharing firm Lyft.
In Phoenix, Arizona, Alphabet (Google)
subsidiary Waymo operates a
driverless autonomous ride-sharing
service that residents can order via a
smartphone app.
Waymo claims to have reduced the
cost of LiDAR systems for its vehicles
by 90 percent by developing its own
proprietary hardware. Previously,
it had purchased Velodyne LiDAR
systems for its cars at a cost of
$75,000 per unit.
In 2016, ride-sharing company Uber
acquired autonomous truck startup
Otto, co-founded by former Waymo
employee Anthony Levandowski in
2016. In 2017, Waymo sued Uber,
claiming that Levandowski had stolen
trade secrets related to autonomous
driving and Waymo’s proprietary
LiDAR.
In 2018, Uber shut down Otto to focus
on building self-driving cars within its
Advanced Technologies Group (ATG)
instead of trucks. In 2019, Waymo
began selling its $7,500 LiDar sensor,
named the Laser Bear Honeycomb,
to other companies, providing that
they promised not to compete with
Waymo’s robo-taxi service.
Beyond cost, however, it’s almost a
certainty that as it advances, LiDAR
will be proven technically superior
to radar and video cameras for
autonomous driving.
Yet self-driving vehicles of the future
(those functioning at SAE Autonomy
Levels 3 and above) will likely fuse
data from all three systems. Why?
Fusion brings two benefits. The first
is that a richer, more diverse set of
data sources will produce greater
navigation accuracy. The second is
that multiple systems provide safety
redundancy should any one of them
have an error or an outage.
In 2016, Uber decided to shift from using Ford
Fusion cars to Volvo XC90s for its self-driving
car program.
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Top LiDAR companies in
the automotive industry

Consumption of LiDARs are mainly dominated by

Automotive sectors, especially the recent pool of
investment flowed-in self-driving/autonomous cars
has increased the demand three-fold. Competition is
becoming more and more intense with new product
launch and a lot of new announcements and takeovers are
happening around the world. The LiDAR market in 2018 was
valued between USD 1.30 to USD 1.35 billion which could
reach USD 5.5 billion by 2024.

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Automotive LiDAR Market size was estimated to be over 35,000 units with the market size of over USD
150 million in 2017. The market is anticipated to reach 3 billion in 2024.

A number of firms make automotive Companies producing software

LiDAR equipment. and other components needed
to effect obstacle detection and
Companies producing avoidance include:
automotive LiDAR sensors • Autonomous Solutions (United
include:
States)
• Velodyne (United States)
• Aptiv (Ireland)
• Ouster (United States)
• Aeva (United States) Companies integrating all of the
• Luminar (United States) above into complete solutions
• Baraja (Australia) include:
• Innoviz (Isreal) • Xenomatix (Belgium)
• Valeo (France) • Ibeo (Germany)
• Sick (Germany) • ContinentalContinental (Germany)
• Infineon (Germany) • LeddarTech (Canada)
• Benewake (China) • Quanergy (United States)
• Livox (China) • AEye (United States)
• Denso (Japan) • Robosense (China)
• Hokuyo (Japan) • Hesai (China)
• Pioneer (Japan)

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Future players in the growing
automotive LIDAR marketplace
may include:
• First Sensor (Germany)
• Bosch (Germany)
• Sony (Japan)
• Phantom Intelligence (Canada)
• BorgWarner (formerly Delphi)
(United States)
• Intel/Mobileye (United States)
• Lumotive (United States)
• Sense Photonics (United States)
• Garmin (United States)
• Apple (United States)
It’s notable that as recently as 2019,
Elon Musk, the founder of electric car
company Tesla, had shied away from
LiDAR, instead of focusing on “2D”
camera technology for his company’s
self-driving cars and prototypes.
Many industry observers, including
auto research firm Navigant, believe
this approach is wrong and may
compromise passenger safety.
In mid-2019, researchers from
cybersecurity firm McAfee’s Advanced
Threat Research division used black
tape to deface a highway speed
sign. They distorted the posted
35 mph speed limit to convince an
approaching pre-2017 Tesla Model S
vehicle into thinking the speed limit
was 85 mph. This caused the Tesla
vehicle’s Autopilot to attempt to
speed up by 50 mph. Although the
Model S’s Autopilot systems have been
upgraded since then, this test showed
off marked fallibility of the car’s 2D
Mobileye electronic vision system. This
demonstrates why 3D sensing systems
such as LiDAR may be better suited to
govern self-driving vehicles’ speed.
Like Tesla, carmaker Nissan—still
smarting from a financial scandal
involving its former chairman Carlos
Ghosn—has taken an anti-LiDAR
stance, choosing to incorporate sonar
in addition to radar and cameras for
navigation. “It would be fantastic if
LiDAR technology was at the level that
we could use it in our systems, but it’s
not. There’s an imbalance between its
cost and its capabilities,” said Tetsuya
Iijima of Nissan’s automated driving
technology group.
Elon Musk has said:
“Anyone relying on LIDAR is
doomed. Doomed. [LiDAR is]
expensive sensors that are
unnecessary. It’s like having
a whole bunch of expensive
appendices. In cars, [LiDAR]
is freaking stupid… as [Tesla
AI director] Andrej [Karpathy]
was saying, once you solve
vision, it’s worthless.”
LiDAR | 15
What vehicle manufacturers
have integrated or invested in
LiDAR?
In 2016, General Motors acquired
autonomous car firm Cruise, which
then purchased LiDAR startup venture
Strobe.
In 2017, Detroit automaker Ford
acquired autonomous driving startup
Argo AI, which itself bought LiDAR
startup firm Princeton Lightwave. Ford
also has given financial support to
LiDAR industry leader Velodyne.
In late 2017, carmaker Audi (owned
by Volkswagen, the world’s largest
automotive company) released a
partially autonomous version of its
model A8 vehicle, making it the first
production car to integrate a form of
LiDAR.
In 2018 and 2019, respectively, Audi’s
Autonomous Intelligent Driving (AID)
division partnered with American
LiDAR vendors Luminar and Aeva
for autonomous vehicles currently
undergoing testing in Munich,
Germany.
In December 2019, Porsche (a
major shareholder of Volkswagen)
announced it had invested in LiDAR
vendor Aeva, with the hope of
integrating its products into some
Volkswagen vehicles, beginning with
the ID Buzz AV minivan.
In 2018, Swedish carmaker Volvo
(owned by Chinese concern Geely
Holding Group) made a major
investment in Luminar, which has
also partnered with Japanese
manufacturer Toyota on autonomous
test vehicles.
Aurora, a self-driving car startup
funded by online retailer Amazon,
acquired LiDAR vendor Blackmore in
2019.
BMW has said it aims to launch
self-driving cars in 2021 with LiDAR
systems supplied by Isreal’s Innoviz.
Waymo, the Alphabet subsidiary with
its own LiDAR hardware, has hinted
strongly that one of its goals is to
ultimately sell self-driving passenger
vehicles to the public. Still, so far, it
has not done so. In the meantime,
the Russian search engine company
Yandex has its own autonomous
vehicle project that is said to include
an internal LiDAR team.
Other companies that have either
talked about integrating LiDAR or
shown off LiDAR-equipped prototype
vehicles include China’s Pony.ai and
Baidu , Germany’s Daimle, and the
U.S.’s Zoox and Nuro.
LiDAR | 16
Focus on Japanese
LiDAR supplier Pioneer

Japanese electronics company Pioneer has big plans

for electronics in autonomous vehicles. The firm has
set up a dedicated new venture, Pioneer Smart Sensing
Innovations, to concentrate on this specific marketplace.

LiDAR | 17

By the 1970s, the company had
established a respectable reputation
as a manufacturer of high-fidelity
audio and video components. At the
same time, the firm added automotive
electronics to its portfolio, initially
under its own brand, but eventually
under a separate sub-label known as
Carrozzeria.
Carrozzeria is a word borrowed from
the Italian language used to describe
auto-body styling businesses such as
the widely known firms of Pininfarina,
Bertone, and ItalDesign/Giugiaro.
These firms were responsible for
crafting the bodies of some of the
most famous sports cars in the
world by automakers such as Ferrari,
Lamborghini, Maserati, Alfa Romeo,
etc.
The beginning of map-based car
navigation
Starting in 1990, Pioneer’s Carrozzeria
components were the first devices to
enable electronic street navigation by
making use of GPS and LCD screens
to present visual maps to drivers.
These maps were created by another
Pioneer division called Increment
P Corporation for use in major
metropolitan areas of Japan. Because
the worldwide web didn’t exist at the
time, the company put its map data
on CD- and DVD-ROMs that could be
swapped in and out of Carrozzeria
players.
Very rapidly, Carrozzeria equipment
became more sophisticated. It began
to get traffic data from a Japan-
wide broadcast service called VICS
created specifically for this purpose.
Voice commands enabled control
and destination setting. Data that it
learned from congestion and traffic
jams drivers encountered was shared
and merged to make Pioneer’s map
datasets richer and more accurate.
In 2009, Carrozzeria navigation
components began to get local
information via cellular connections
(what Pioneer termed “Air Navi”). In
2011, front-facing car cameras enabled
Carrozzeria screens to display images
enhanced by augmented reality (AR)
graphics. In 2012, Pioneer took its AR
system and applied it to a heads-up
display (HUD) that overlaid the interior
portion of cars’ windshields.
Needless to say, these systems were
among the most sophisticated car
navigation electronics one could buy
at the time they were released. Initially
available only in Japan, Pioneer
expanded its street and location data
collection to include many other parts
of the world. It soon started selling a
wider range of its car electronics in
Europe and the United States.
LiDAR | 18
Pioneer entered the LiDAR with Pioneer’s LiDAR drive, they’ll
market constantly capture new street and
environmental information that will be
As automakers began to experiment
fused with Increment P Corporation’s
with autonomous vehicles, Pioneer
existing datasets. This will create
sought to leverage its Carrozzeria
a continuously updating data
experience for the development of
ecosystem.
self-driving car navigation systems.
The process of creating environmental
Pioneer had already produced laser
and positioning data on the fly is
modules and tracking hardware for
known as simultaneous localization
high-quality LaserDisc, CD, and DVD
and mapping, or SLAM. (Pioneer’s
players for decades. Therefore, a move
version of it is called Super Fusion
into developing laser light detection
VSLAM, where the “V” stands for
and ranging (LiDAR) systems for cars
visual.)
was a logical progression.

In 2019, Pioneer committed to Autonomous shuttle bus equipped

partnering with Japanese camera with Pioneer’s 3D-LiDAR sensor.
equipment maker Canon to develop
what it terms “3D” LiDAR. To Pioneer’s
rich experience in laser components,
car electronics, and navigation
systems, Canon adds extensive
optical expertise that strengthens this
partnership.

For mapping in new parts of the world,

Pioneer has teamed up with Dutch
enterprise HERE Technologies, which
has map data for up to 80 percent of
North America and Europe. Pioneer
has invested in both HERE and
Japanese firm Dynamic Map Platform
Co., Ltd. to access optimal navigation
datasets for its future LiDAR products.

But the company’s quest for the

best mapping doesn’t end there.
As autonomous cars equipped

LiDAR | 19
LiDAR—looking ahead

In the coming years, more automakers are expected to

start ordering LiDAR systems in bulk as their vehicles meet
and surpass the capabilities of the Society of Automotive
Engineers (SAE) Autonomy Level 4+ prototype cars now
being demonstrated and tested by Apple, Alphabet, Tesla,
and others. Until then, lower-cost LiDAR components
are expected to substantially enhance Advanced
Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) functionality in new
production cars.

LiDAR | 20
The swift development of the autonomous vehicles has developed numerous opportunities
for the growth of the automotive LiDAR sensors.

In short, there’s no doubt that LiDAR North America to lead LiDAR

will play a crucial role in autonomous market this decade
vehicles of the future. The LiDAR
By region, North America is expected
market size is projected to grow from
to dominate the LiDAR market in the
USD 844 million in 2019 to USD 2,273
forseable future. The growth of the
million by 2024, at a CAGR of 18.5
North American market is attributed
percent from 2019 to 2024.
to the use of LiDAR in ADAS and
autonomous vehicles.
In the coming years, more automakers
are expected to start ordering LiDAR
As LiDAR technology matures, it will
systems in bulk as their vehicles meet
continue to get smaller, cheaper, and
and surpass the capabilities of the
ever more powerful. Some industry
Society of Automotive Engineers
players are now developing solid-
(SAE) Autonomy Level 4+ prototype
state single or array “on-a-chip” LiDAR
cars now being demonstrated and
emitters that feature few or no moving
tested by Apple, Alphabet, Tesla,
parts, whereas current systems rely
and others. Until then, lower-cost
on rotating pieces to move their units’
LiDAR components are expected
lasers around. It’s likely that this newer
to substantially enhance Advanced
solid-state form of LiDAR will supplant
Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS)
the rotating kind and continue to drive
functionality in new production cars.
costs down.

LiDAR | 21