KIT WILL ENABLE CARS TO SELFDRIVE,
Maker of high-end audio gets $150M infusion for Lidar
A company founded in 1984 to produce high-end audio systems now is on the vanguard of the self-driving vehicle frontier with key financial backing from Ford Motor and Baidu, China’s largest search engine provider.
Velodyne, a Morgan Hill, Calif., company, received $150 million from Ford and Baidu to continue development and production of Lidar, or the 3D light-powered radar that helps self-driving cars see where they are going.
Lidar emits short pulses of laser light so software in the selfdriving vehicle can create a realtime, high-definition 3D image of what’s around it. In addition to cars, the systems have potential for agricultural equipment, mining and military vehicles.
“They are the only supplier in the market that can help us achieve our goal of delivering a high-volume autonomous vehicle,” said Raj Nair, Ford’s executive vice president of product development.
Research and Markets, a Dublin-based market research company, estimates sales of Lidar systems will grow 34% annually over the next five years. Bostonbased Mordor Intelligence estimates the global Lidar market will grow from $1.3 billion in 2015 to $2.42 billion by 2020. It named Velodyne as one of about a dozen leading developers.
With just 210 employees, Velodyne was in need of capital to keep up with growing demand for its products. Mike Jellen, the company’s president, said the investment will help expand development and manufacturing operations and speed the advancement of Lidar technology.
“We ship Lidar today, we have thousands of them in the field, but what automakers are really looking for are longer-range sensors and higher-resolution sensors at a lower cost,” Jellen said.
Until recently, Velodyne’s Lidar systems cost about $8,000 — too high to be cost effective for an automaker selling to individual customers or even fleet sales. Later this year, Velodyne will begin producing a system that could cost as little as $500 per unit, if a high enough volume is ordered.
Ford’s investment was announced along with investments and acquisitions of three other companies this month. Ford also announced its intent to develop a fully autonomous vehicle by 2021. Ford CEO Mark Fields said those companies, along with the automaker’s new employees in Silicon Valley, have an opportunity to work on tech that has the potential of “changing the world.”
“This is a transformational moment in our industry and ... in our company,” he said.
Velodyne was founded by David Hall, who built his first amplifier at age 4, according to the company’s website. In the 1980s, Hall obtained a patent for a subwoofer, and Velodyne was a leader in high-end speaker systems.
Jellen said the company began selling Lidar systems about a decade ago and is growing faster now than ever.
Velodyne has become wellknown in China, which helps explain Baidu’s decision to invest $75 million in the company. With a market capitalization of $66 billion, Baidu is China’s answer to Google. Like Google, Baidu has its own autonomous car program and has started testing driverless cars on public roads in China.