The high cost of LiDAR technology has been on the minds of autonomous vehicle researchers for years. Various solutions may cost $10,000 or much more for a single vehicle--far out of reach of mass production carmakers.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has objected to using LiDAR in next-generation cars partly over cost concerns, instead relying on cameras to do the sensing work required.
The issue of LiDAR cost surfaced again this week when Reuters reported that Mobileye, a unit of Intel, is planning a self-driving car system for 2025 that could use house-built LiDAR sensors rather than units from a LiDAR partner, Luminar Technologies.
Luminar and Mobileye had signed a supply agreement in November to use Luminar LiDAR in first-generation Mobileye vehicles to be used as robo-taxis starting in 2022.
Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua told Reuters that it is also developing its own LiDAR sensor for 2025 that relies on frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW), rather than Luminar’s pulse technology.,
FMCW will benefit from Intel’s silicon phototonics manufacturing approach to drive down costs for consumer cars and could even replace Luminar’s units in robo-taxis.
“We believe the cost of an entire self-driving system can be in the few thousand dollar range and that brings us into a consumer vehicle position,” Shashua said in the report. “If we can make this work, it will also be used for robo-taxis.”
The Reuters report helped generate concerns about the future of Luminar, sending its stock price down 23% on Tuesday, December 15. Shares dropped from a high of 29.88 that day to 22.87, but have slowly recuperated to 25.55 at noon EST on Thursday.
The next day after the stock price drop on Wednesday, Luminar and Mobileye issued a joint press release that said the companies are still collaborating “full speed ahead.” In the release, the November 20 contract between the companies was mentioned again, stating that Luminar would provide its LiDAR in production volumes at sub-$1,000 cost.
Also in the release, Shashua was quoted saying Mobileye “has worked closely with Luminar for our next phase of driverless car development.” He added, “In tandem, Mobileye has independently been working on silicon photonics-based LiDAR that could be part of our future solutions. This has been public for some time and does not change our plans to use Luminar.”
Luminar was founded in 2012 and has a 350-person work force in several locations. The recent drop in its shares came less than two weeks after the company started trading as a public company on Dec. 3.
Luminar competes with Velodyne Lidar, which went public in September and Aeva, which has plans to go public. Luminar has a deal with Volvo, owned by Chinese carmaker Geely to supply LiDAR units for consumer vehicles starting in 2022.
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