Huawei aims to develop low cost lidar systems to boost autonomous driving deployment in China
- The self driving car industry has become notorious for its high-burn rate when it comes to research and development expenses
- With the technology maturing and more products entering the market, lidar prices have dropped significantly
Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has formed a team to focus on developing low-cost multichannel lidar sensors with the goal of making the technology affordable enough for all smart vehicles.
Wang Jun, head of Huawei’s smart car solution business unit, said the company plans to launch 100-channel and 200-channel lidar products soon, at a cost of US$500 or less.
“Huawei’s prices mean all smart cars can be equipped with lidar,” said Wang, speaking at the China Auto Blue-Book Forum in Wuhan on Tuesday.
Chinese autonomous driving start-ups are looking for cost-efficient ways to achieve large-scale adoption of the technology as China aims to start rolling out its first high-level, fully autonomous vehicles by 2025. The sector has become notorious for its high-burn rate when it comes to research and development expenses, coupled with the cost of government-issued testing licenses for self-driving vehicles.
Lidar, which measures distance using laser beams to generate highly accurate 2D or 3D maps of the world outside the vehicle, have varied in price, ranging from US$100 to as high as US$75,000 for a fully functional rooftop system from industry leader Velodyne, according to Wired magazine.
Other technologies such as radar and cameras are also being tested as cheaper ways to enable self-driving vehicles to navigate through complex real-world traffic environments. Tesla, the prominent tech disrupter in the automobile industry, depends on cameras and radar for its own self driving cars.