The demand for solid-state LiDAR systems is still rising in an aggressive manner as an increasing number of original equipment manufacturers in the auto industry are investing even more resources in their efforts to finalize SAE Level 2 and Level 3 semi-autonomous driving solutions, according to LeddarTech, a provider of such sensor solutions. The company’s newly published bi-annual report states that auto OEMs are still pursuing their goal of commercializing basic autonomous driving technologies within the first half of the next decade, underscoring the already crucial need for a reliable supply of premium yet cost-effective LiDARs and other sensing solutions.
LeddarTech is unsurprisingly seeing the current state of affairs as a massive opportunity for growing its business, particularly after it successfully completed a $101 million funding round at the end of its last fiscal year and is now equipped with the financial tools for accelerating its expansion. The company’s flagship product is the self-titled Leddar, a solid-state LiDAR system that’s touted as a result of a decade worth of intensive research and development. The firm says it added more Tier-1 clients and OEM projects to its portfolio over the first half of its current fiscal year concluded in March but still isn’t mentioning any names. LeddarTech sees SSLs as the future of autonomous driving due to their cost-effective nature that it believes is the key to unlocking self-driving vehicles that aren’t just perfectly safe and easy to produce on a large scale but also affordable to manufacture.
Whereas traditional laser-shooting and spinning LiDARs cost tens upon thousands of dollars per a single unit, SSLs — much like their name implies — feature no movable parts and can be manufactured and sold at a profit with a price tag that’s only measured in hundreds of dollars, being entirely silicon-based. Some major auto OEMs like BMW already embraced the technology and more are expected to follow suit in the near future, with LeddarTech now looking to expand beyond its native Canada and scale up its operations by launching the LCA2 SoC and a LiDAR module based on it, in addition to ennobling its ranks with new expert hires in key positions.