Helpful in fully autonomous driving, LiDAR is attracting many car OEMs
According to a recently released study, LiDAR shipments will reach 100 million units by 2030. The report suggests that the automotive industry will drive this tectonic rise. As per the estimates, there will be eight units of LiDAR sensors per car, and these sensors will aid in fully autonomous driving. The report expects that the LiDAR market will witness a CAGR of 65.9%, hence crossing $15 billion by 2030.
As per the report, the 2021 automotive LiDAR market nearly touched $100 million, with giants like Toyota, Honda and China-born Xpeng launching LiDAR-equipped models. Moreover, various car OEMs have partnered with LiDAR suppliers for their future models, with Chinese giants leading such collaborations.
Presently, there are over 80 companies in the global LiDAR market, catering to different geographies. It is interesting to note that as the pandemic hit the world, nine companies including Aeva, Aeye, Cepton, Indie Semiconductor, Innoviz, Luminar, Ouster, Quanergy and Velodyne have announced stock listing via SPAC mergers.
Substitute technologies like cameras and machine vision provide an imminent threat to the yet-nascent LiDAR market. A few players in the industry opine that cheaper vision-based systems are enough to aid autonomous driving. Scala, a product of Valeo is the first mass-produced LiDAR for automotive globally (170,000 units shipped). Looking ahead, the market penetration seems slow but steady for LiDAR.
