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To: slacker711 who wrote (41)	3/19/2017 6:32:42 PM
From: Kirk ©	Respond to of 567

Interesting.... Velodyne is basically the standard LIDAR in most of the prototype autonomous car I wasn't aware a great speaker company I've dealt with directly here had branched out from speakers! They are down in Morgan Hill south of San Jose. One of their amps in my subwoofer went out and they sent me a new one to swap out with the dead one without much hassle. A quality and honorable company. Looks like they are ramping up production in California too. Velodyne Plans a Lidar Megafactory Posted 18 Jan 2017 \| 18:30 GMT spectrum.ieee.org Photo: Business Wire After years of dominating the market for automotive lidar thanks to the simple fact of being in it first, Velodyne is now shaking off new contenders by expanding a megafactory in San Jose, Calif. This investment—enabled in part by cash infusions from Ford and Baidu—should allow Velodyne to ramp up to 1 million units annually by 2018, the company says. That means that its rooftop tower, the Cadillac of lidars, may soon sell at Chevrolet prices. The company is also expanding its R&D effort by building a new facility in Alameda, Calif. The factory is already in operation on a comparatively small scale, churning out the HDL-64E, a descendant of the model made famous as the roof-mounted revolving scanner on Google’s self-driving cars. Google originally had to pay US $73,000 for each unit, itself a rotating array of 64 laser beams. But in 2015, Chris Urmson, then head of Google’s car project—recently spun off as Waymo— said his outfit was unhappy with the product and was designing alternatives to it in house. Earlier this month, at CES 2017, Waymo CEO John Krafcik showed off a new self-driving car packing in-house lidars of three kinds: midrange, to replace Velodyne’s unit; short distance, for the area right next to the car that had previously stood in the shadow of that unit; and long distance, for seeing beyond the range of Velodyne’s original model. Velodyne’s expansion suggests not only that the company thinks it can outdo Google but also other startups that in recent years have started talking up plans for much less costly solid-state lidars that they claim would equal or even outperform the Velodyne design. Then, last month, Velodyne claimed a “breakthrough” in solid-state design that, with mass production, should drop the unit price below $50. That’s like marking down a Caddy to Matchbox car prices. Such cheap-as-dirt lidar would find its way into just about every vehicle, bicycles included. Even Tesla chief Elon Musk, famously dismissive of the sensor, might finally cave in and allow lidar a place at the table.

To: slacker711 who wrote (41)	4/20/2017 11:41:49 AM
From: slacker711	2 Recommendations Recommended By Sam The Ox Respond to of 567

Intelligent Machines A Key Piece of Self-Driving Cars Is About to Get a Lot Cheaper technologyreview.com Velodyne, which leads the world in making lidar sensors for autonomous cars, just announced a brand-new design. by Jamie Condliffe April 20, 2017 Recommended for You The budding autonomous-car industry is in something of a panic. Laser sensors are crucial to help most self-driving cars see, but there aren’t enough to go around. This is, of course, good news for companies that make those sensors, and now Velodyne, the most established manufacturer of the devices, has announced a much more affordable new sensor. Most self-driving vehicles use lidar to map physical space by bouncing laser beams off ofobjects. But as we’ve reported recently, the autonomy boom means that suppliers of the once-niche hardware are struggling to keep up with demand. Even companies that have developed in-house alternatives are having trouble: Uber and Waymo are currently embroiled in a lawsuit over the intellectual property relating to their homegrown hardware. Typically, a lidar rig is the most distinctive part of a self-driving car: it looks like an oversize coffee can mounted on the car’s roof, whirling around as it spits out laser pulses. And the most commonly spotted sensors are made by Velodyne, whose top-end devices cost tens of thousands of dollars. But Velodyne has now announced a new kind of solid-state lidar sensor that promises to be smaller and far cheaper than current mechanical versions. Instead of spinning, these devices guide laser beams using electronic beam steering. While that means that a single sensor can only cover a 120-degree field of view, so a car would need three to do the same job as its rotating counterpart, they can still see up to 200 meters away. And the solid-state design has several advantages. First, the devices are much smaller—measuring five inches long and two inches high and deep—so they could be placed inside fenders or mirrors. Second, they’re more robust. And perhaps most important, the new design is far cheaper. Like, hundreds of dollars cheap. That will put it in direct competition with other companies developing similar solid-state lidar sensors. Startup Quanergy has developed one that is slated to start shipping this September for $250 a pop, while the Israeli firm Innoviz has promised a $100 device by 2018. Velodyne, meanwhile, plans to deliver sample units to customers by the end of this year and swing into full production by the end of 2018. Clearly, there’s an end in sight for the laser shortage, especially given that upstarts like Luminar are also trying to break into the market with their own new takes on lidar. Who will win out among all these companies remains to be seen. In truth, it might not matter for now: the biggest prize will ultimately be in the contracts to provide lidar systems for mass-produced cars. That will depend not just on availability and price, but longevity too—something the autonomous car industry hasn’t really had time to test.