Demand for affordable lidar systems has created a hot market niche because automakers need the technology to launch cars that can drive themselves.
It’s so crucial that Volvo last year invested in Palo Alto, California-based tech company Luminar to develop a system that will allow the automaker to offer unsupervised highway driving capability on the third-generation XC90, which is due in 2021.
Another company aiming to help automakers achieve higher levels of autonomous driving is Cepton, which plans to have a Level 4-capable system reach by June. At Level 4 autonomy, a car can drive itself but still has a steering wheel and pedals so that the driver can take control when needed.
I had a chance to see one of Cepton's systems in action during a test drive around downtown Munich last week.
The San Jose, California-based supplier’s solution, which uses a 905 nanometer wavelength, can identify objects at distances up to 200 meters. I was able to identify vehicles, bicyclists, pedestrians and even dogs out on walks with their owners.
Cepton Business Development Director Jürgen Ludwig said that the company wants its system to stand out because it’s scalable and affordable. While the price of current lidar systems is estimated at $4,000 to $85,000 a unit, Ludwig said Cepton wants to get the cost of its system to less than $500 once it reaches mass production. Cepton currently makes its lidars in San Jose but Ludwig said it will soon outsource production, which he added can be done fully automatically.
Ludwig said one reason Cepton is confident it can develop an affordable system is because, unlike many of its rivals, the company’s patented Micro-Motion Technology has no rotating parts and is free of frictional wear.
Cepton, which was founded in 2016, has a unique understanding of the sector because CEO Jun Pei is the former vice president of engineering at the current leader of the lidar sector, Velodyne.
Ludwig says that 41 out of the company’s 70 customers are in the automotive sector. Eleven are established automakers, 20 are autonomous vehicle startups and the rest are Tier 1 or Tier 2 suppliers.
One of those suppliers is Japanese lighting giant Koito, which is working with Cepton to integrate a lidar system into a headlight, a move that would enable the vehicle to recognize and track objects from all four corners without sacrificing on a car’s design.
For Cepton the relationship with Koito could be a boon given that the company has an estimated 20 percent share of the global lighting market.
When asked about Cepton's financial situation Ludwig declined to provide any details, but he did say the company was well funded and it actually had to turn away potentials investors at CES in Las Vegas last month.
