But the cost of adding these lidars can be prohibitive. Early prototypes can cost as much as $ 75,000 apiece for autonomous test vehicles, but most aim at $ 500 apiece in automotive production.
A few days before the Volvo EX90 with Luminar was unveiled with Luminar, Ouster and Velodyne, two of the industry’s largest lidar companies, agreed on a proposed merger, which is slated to end in the first half of 2023. lower these costs.
“We are now in its infancy with the cost curve,” said Angus Pacala, Outster co-founder and CEO. Automotive News. “These costs are mainly dependent on quantity, which is why scale is so important to achieving an affordable future.”
Outter’s stock has lost 77 percent of its value since Jan.1, while Velodyne, a pioneer in the Lidar realm who became an early leader, saw its stock fall by 80 percent this year.
But both companies found sales in other industries. Ouster posted $ 11.2 million in revenue at the end of the third quarter, a 44 percent year-over-year increase, while Pacala said the company saw “tremendous growth” in the robotics and industrial sectors. Velodyne has found a volume in similar industries.
The breakdown of auto markets is more complicated, said Pacala. Markets are building from scratch, no mass deployments yet, and lidar suppliers are slowing down multi-year automotive product cycles.
“But there is still an exciting long-term development opportunity in the automotive industry,” said Pacala. “The leader industry needs to consolidate, it is possible to build a stable leader with the scale and resources to provide a product that is truly affordable and can promote mass adoption.”
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