Compared with the camera content in the previous chapter, this time we will take you into a more mysterious and less popular field-lidar.
Highlights of the article:
Is the "originator" of lidar an audio manufacturer?
The $65,438+10,000 lidar was hung up by domestic products with more than $65,438+10,000?
What is the international level of China's lidar?
○ Enter the world of lidar
Lidar is indeed a mysterious sensor in our cognition, and there are not many reports or books about it. In the field of automobile sensors, we generally talk about cameras, millimeter-wave radars and so on. Frankly speaking, the public doesn't know much about the current situation of the industry.
This situation has both advantages and problems. The advantage is that long-term technical precipitation can reduce the price of traditional sensors, and different sensors can advance steadily according to the foreseeable technical route; The problem lies in the effect of the sensor itself. For example, ultrasonic radar is limited by distance, millimeter wave radar is difficult to identify targets, and the camera is not robust enough.
In fact, the camera is very sensitive to the color and shape of the outside world, so we often compare the camera to the human eye, but the camera has some defects in distance information, which will cause problems in distance judgment.
These problems may not be obvious in L2 driver assistance. After all, L2' s main driver is still human, but when it comes to L4' s automatic driving, the problem of sensors becomes very prominent, and additional sensors need to be introduced to complement each other. As a kind of sensor that can obtain the external distance, orientation, height, speed, shape and even attitude under all-weather conditions (extreme rain and snow weather will also affect it, but it will not be affected at night), lidar has entered our sight.
○ On the eve of lidar outbreak
Lidar itself is not a new technology. As early as 19 17, Einstein put forward the theoretical basis of laser, and then in 1960, Hughes laboratory in California completed the manufacture of the world's first laser. From then on, laser began to enter various fields.
The US Navy also demonstrated the ability of lidar to identify targets in the 1992 combat exercise. Later, the US Marine Corps also experimented with hand-held lidar, which soldiers could carry to collect images around them in the dark.
Generally speaking, the military application of lidar is very extensive, and the US military is also committed to promoting the development of laser weapons. Coincidentally, a challenge initiated by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the US Department of Defense has promoted the development of lidar in the civilian field in another field.
But the situation in previous sessions was that no challenger could finish the game. There are both hardware problems and software problems.
Wilden, originally founded in 1983, is an audio equipment manufacturer, and Mr. Hall is the CEO of the company. As a CEO, he is also an engineer, and his greatest hobby is innovation. The original intention of participating in DARPA Challenge is an engineer's interest in science and technology, but unfortunately all previous competitions ended in failure. The success of single-line lidar made him discover the potential of lidar. At the same time, he assembled single-line lidar and built 64-line lidar in 2006. From this time on, Verdun began to transform into a professional lidar manufacturer.
"Velodyne64 Line Lidar"
It can be said that since the DARPA Challenge in 2004, the application of lidar in autonomous driving has gradually entered people's sight, but due to the constraints of cost, technology, production and other factors, until 20 15, lidar existed more as a scientific research product. In essence, the development of lidar is ultimately driven by the popularity of autonomous driving. Therefore, before 20 15, lidar was not really commercialized (even Verdun), and its development was seriously restricted by the poor shipment, high technical barriers and long production cycle caused by complex assembly process.
○ Chinese and American enterprises moving towards competition
The real turning point is at 20 15-20 16. At that time, the calm autonomous driving market was rippling again. Google Alpha Go Robot defeated Li Shishi, the world champion, in the man-machine battle of Go. The topic of artificial intelligence has once again been hotly debated, and extended autonomous driving has once again entered our sight. People are beginning to realize that with the development of artificial intelligence, autonomous driving may no longer be the future in a hundred years. On the other hand, the capital market has also begun to add fuel to the flames, and the car giants have begun to quietly lay out the market.
The ferocity of autonomous driving is like a big cake on the head of Weilideng. To be precise, it is at the top of the lidar industry. It was a very common scene at that time that one plane was hard to find, and there was even a story that the autonomous driving company asked for the supply of Veridon.
It can be said that the sensor field has been adhering to the development process from scratch, from existence to Excellence, from Excellence to precision. In the early stage of the lidar market, American companies did play an absolute leading role, but from 20 16, Chinese lidar companies that were not afraid of tigers began to hunt Wilton. Among them, a number of outstanding enterprises have emerged, such as sagitar Juchuang and Jose Technology.
Among them, sagitar Juchuang is one of the most famous lidar enterprises in China. Compared with Veridon, Sagitar Juchuang was obviously not established for a long time. Although it belongs to the earliest head company in China to develop lidar, it is not dominant in the overall time axis. This company can quickly get the favor of car companies and autonomous driving companies, and it must have its own uniqueness. I think there are three main aspects: cost, technology and service.
The same is true of the products produced by American Lidar Company. Even if there are a large number of orders, Willetten rarely works overtime. Factory workers will go to work step by step, and even delivery will be delayed.
The second manifestation of low labor costs is that skilled workers have sufficient reserves. Guangdong has a perfect photoelectric R&D and production system, so there are many skilled workers with high quality, and they usually have experience in the production and processing of semiconductors and photoelectric products, such as Dongguan and Baoan. Therefore, it is not difficult for technology companies in China to recruit skilled workers, so it is very easy to achieve sales breakthrough by increasing workers, and there is no technical bottleneck.
This is an advantage in production, and also a benefit brought by China's complete industrial system. Today, when the American government advocates "bringing manufacturing back to the United States", China's complete industrial system is a precious wealth left by our predecessors. With these foundations, we can occupy a place on a higher stage.
In addition to the advantages in production, the second competitive point lies in the technology of lidar itself. There is a saying in the field of lidar: seven points depend on design, two points depend on technology and one point depends on supply chain. The initial design of lidar determines its success.
This kind of lidar requires high accuracy and reliability of mechanical rotating mechanism. Each line in the hardware consists of a pair of laser transmitter and receiver. In order to ensure accurate ranging, it is necessary to ensure that the emitted laser can be received by the paired receiver after completing the distance of 100-200m, which increases the difficulty of the product. At present, the order quantity is small, and laser radars are all made by hand, which requires accurate optical alignment and assembly of transmitting and receiving modules. The work is complicated, the workload is heavy, and mass production is difficult.
In the past, the 64-line laser radar of Wilden was of this type, with 64 transmitters integrated on one board. Workers need to debug each laser transmitter, which takes a lot of time. After debugging, it needs to be re-tested, and if there is any problem, it needs to be re-debugged. On the other hand, the laser transmitter adopts the installation process of dispensing glue, which further increases the probability of problems. Therefore, the design should be improved from the beginning, such as changing from dispensing to screw fixation, replacing so many light sources with micro-vibrating mirrors, and so on. And can reduce the production difficulty. This has also developed a series of other types of lidar, such as the solid-state lidar that we often hear at present, that is, the lidar using MEMS micro-vibration mirror technology.
Therefore, from the product point of view alone, sagitar Juchuang can completely confront Weilideng, and it is indeed the case from the actual situation. Sagitar Juchuang has been fighting price war with Weilideng since its establishment. We should know that the laser radar of Velden has always been famous for its high price, and through the price war of domestic enterprises such as Sagitar Juchuang, the price of the laser radar market has indeed dropped like a harvest.
In the early stage, the unit price of the Lidar on the Velden 128 line could reach $65,438+10,000, but now the entry of China players such as Sagitar Juchuang directly lowers the overall price.
The price of 125 line solid-state laser radar released by sagitar Juchuang at the beginning of this year is only 1898 USD (RMB 13383 RMB), and some time ago Huawei also indicated that it would develop 100 line laser radar and reduce the cost of laser radar to 200 USD (about13383 RMB). At this year's CES, Verdun released a laser radar called Velabit, and the price was only 100 USD.
The cheaper and cheaper lidar is of great significance. First of all, it reduces the cost of car companies and autonomous driving companies, encourages car companies to purchase in large quantities, and accelerates the development of autonomous driving; Secondly, the low-cost lidar makes it possible for L2 or L3 autopilot to use this sensor, and because of the performance of lidar itself, the stability of L2 and L3 autopilot is further improved, killing two birds with one stone.
The last advantage of sagitar Juchuang is service. Mr. Qiu Chunchao said before that Sagitar Juchuang provides not only a laser radar, but also an intelligent sensor, in which the word intelligent makes the service of Sagitar Juchuang have a qualitative change. Sagitar Juchuang has always adhered to the essence of the combination of software and hardware of lidar, which is somewhat similar to the taste of Apple.
It is precisely because of these characteristics of sagitar Juchuang that this company can develop rapidly and begin to eat into different markets quickly. For example, self-driving startups, or traditional car companies, have greatly reduced the living space of American companies, laying the groundwork for the failure of the top manufacturer, Wilton.
○ Highlights of China's lidar: Wilden defeated Maicheng, and Chinese enterprises braved the wind and waves.
On 20 19, a news about the layoffs of willden was circulated on the internet. As the originator of lidar, layoffs are unusual. Sure enough, Verdun later withdrew from the China market and cancelled its technical and sales team in China, which meant that Verdun basically gave up the China market.
At present, FAW, Ali Rookie, AutoX, etc. In the process of autonomous driving research and development, all sagitar Juchuang products are selected. It can be said that Wilden's withdrawal from the China market is indeed a powerful encirclement and suppression of Chinese lidar enterprises.
○ The future of lidar in the eyes of China enterprises.
About the future of lidar, sagitar Juchuang also has some own understanding.
The first is the inconspicuous low-speed logistics scene. From the supplier's point of view, sagitar Juchuang's low-speed unmanned arrival is far faster than we thought. In 20 17, JD.COM has carried out trial operation of driverless trucks in Tsinghua University and Renmin University of China, among which the supplier of sensors comes from sagitar Juchuang.
In addition, regarding the recent hot Robotaxi, Sagitar Juchuang believes that behind the popularity is the promotion of capital. From their point of view, it will take a long time to realize it. At this stage, it is difficult to cancel the safety officer in the car. Mr. Qiu Chunchao thinks that Robotaxi will take another ten years to mature.
As for the future of lidar, with the entry of DJI and Huawei, the market competition will be more intense. Mr. Qiu Chunchao believes that this is not only a challenge, but also a promotion, which will promote the continuous progress of China enterprises and make China enterprises more competitive in the world.
Editor's comment: In this article, we have officially entered the most advanced sensor field of autonomous driving. In order to better present the professional manufacturers' understanding of lidar, we went to Shenzhen to interview the chief operating officer of sagitar Juchuang, so many arguments in this paper come from Mr. Qiu Chunchao. Thus, China's competitiveness in the field of lidar is real, and China enterprises have not fallen behind in the competition of the commanding heights of science and technology. Of course, behind the excellent sales of sensors is the vigorous development of autonomous driving. Only by making continuous breakthroughs in the field of autonomous driving will there be more possibilities in the future.
In the next article, we will continue to introduce you to lidar, and we will introduce the production and experiment of lidar in more detail, so that you can feel the charm of science and technology at close range. (Photo/Text car home Leng Xiaoyang)