The global lidar market was worth $1.3bn in 2018, and will ‘explode’ over the next five years to reach $6.4 billion by 2024. That’s the latest prediction from Yolé Developpement, whose analysts have been scrutinising the technologies being developed for the world’s automakers.
In the company’s new report, entitled “Lidar for Automotive and Industrial Applications”, Alexis Debray and colleagues track the emergence of automotive lidar.
“The development of robotic vehicles is accelerating, and one leader has emerged,” reports the analyst firm, highlighting the fleet of 600 vehicles now operated by Google affiliate Waymo. “Several announcements have been made about increasing this number up to 82,000 vehicles using Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans and Jaguar I-Pace SUVs,” Debray says.
Among the major automakers, Yolé notes that Audi has integrated a lidar supplied by Valeo in the high-end A8 model since the end of 2017, and are now expanding this feature to other vehicles such as the Q8, A7 and A6 as an option. Yolé’s Pierrick Boulay says: “Lidar adoption is so on track and other carmakers have announced, or are expected to integrate this technology in future vehicles.” One example is BMW, partnering with Magna and Innoviz, who recently announced a series C venture round worth $132m on the back of the BMW deal, cash required to ramp production of their low-cost lidar units in advance of an anticipated rollout of lidar-equipped BMWs in 2021.
Moves like that have prompted Yolé to forecast that the total lidar market will “explode” in value to reach $6bn by 2024, with automotive applications accounting for 70% of that total.
