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23 Jul 2024
Chinese firm set to provide thousands of its lidar sensors, in an exclusive deal said to be worth as much as $300M.
Hesai Technology, the Nasdaq-listed Chinese company that is rated by one analyst as the market-leading provider of automotive lidar sensors, says it has won a potentially huge new deal with technology giant Baidu.
While still embroiled in a legal row with the US Department of Defense over a listing alleging links to the Chinese military, Hesai nevertheless tops a chart compiled by France-based Yole Intelligence, which reckons it had a 37 per cent share of the growing automotive lidar segment in 2023.
That was largely the result of supply deals with domestic car makers in China, and Hesai now says that its exclusive agreement with Baidu could add another $300 million in overall sales.
The sales figure is based on industry estimates that suggest Baidu is planning to deploy some 100,000 of its “Yichi 06” robotaxi vehicles - with Hesai providing a long-range lidar unit for each one.
Production ramp
Shanghai-headquartered Hesai says that Baidu's “Apollo Go” robotaxi service, which can currently be seen operating in Wuhan and other cities in China, already uses the firm’s “Pandar” sensors as the main lidar unit.
The next generation of the Apollo Go vehicles are expected to appear soon, with Baidu claiming a much-reduced cost of around $28,500.
Hesai’s CEO and co-founder David Li said: “The autonomous driving industry has rapidly evolved in recent years and today's surge of autonomous driving in China is a testament to the breakthroughs we've made in smart driving. Advanced sensors like lidar are accelerating the adoption of autonomous driving.”
The company’s own figures suggest that each of the lidar units used by Baidu would cost around $3000.
Back in March Hesai claimed that a surge in orders would see it increase production to around 200,000 units per quarter by the second half of this year, while annual sales had been expected to jump 60 per cent on the 2023 total and reach around $425 million.
However, that outlook has since been trimmed by $50 million because of delays at customers including Li Autos.
Taxis vs robotaxis
According to a recent report in the Financial Times, Baidu has been developing robotaxis for close to a decade, working closely with key AI and imaging processor chip maker Nvidia.
That is said to have given the tech firm a head-start on rivals like Tesla, but its rapid roll-out of robotaxis - some fully driverless and some featuring some human supervision - has also undercut local taxi drivers, who are reportedly seeking to restrict the autonomous competition.
Other recent developments have seen Hesai hook up with car parts giant Marelli on headlamp-integrated lidar designs, with Li saying that the firm’s “unique” research and production capabilities would enable it to mass produce high-quality lidars at an unparalleled rate.
Pierrick Boulay, a senior analyst at Yole, also commented: “Hesai is paving the way in both the passenger car and robotaxi lidar markets. The company's consistent financial performance is a testament to its resilience in the market, and will likely keep the company at the forefront of the industry for the foreseeable future.”
• Meanwhile RoboSense, which Yole currently ranks second among automotive lidar providers, claims that its unit sales have risen by a factor of five since last year.
The Hong Kong company reports that, as of June 30, its cumulative sales volume for lidar products reached approximately 583,500 units, mostly destined for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) applications.
RoboSense did not give a sales figure in revenue terms, but added that it now had orders to provide lidars for no fewer than 71 vehicle models, from 22 different global OEMs and Tier 1 customers.
"By the end of the first quarter of 2024, we have achieved SOP [start of production] on 25 vehicle models, from 12 of these customers," it stated.
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