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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Velodyne Will Sell a Lidar for $100 [ieee.org]

Velodyne [velodynelidar.com] claims to have broken the US $100 barrier for automotive lidar with its tiny Velabit [velodynelidar.com], which it unveiled at CES earlier this month.

"Claims" is the mot juste because this nice, round dollar amount is an estimate based on the mass-manufacturing maturity of a product that has yet to ship. Such a factoid would hardly be worth mentioning had it come from some of the several-score odd lidar startups [reuters.com] that haven't shipped anything at all. But Velodyne created this industry back during DARPA-funded competitions [ieee.org], and has been the market leader ever since.

"The projection is $100 at volume; we'll start sampling customers in the next few months," Anand Gopalan [velodynelidar.com], the company's chief technology officer, tells IEEE Spectrum.

The company says in a release [businesswire.com] that the Velabit "delivers the same technology and performance found on Velodyne's full suite of state-of-the-art sensors." Given the device's small size, that must mean the solid-state version [ieee.org] of the technology. That is, the non-rotating kind.

Related: Why Experts Believe Cheaper, Better Lidar is Right Around the Corner [soylentnews.org]
Nikon Will Help Build Velodyne's Lidar Sensors for Future Self-Driving Cars [soylentnews.org]
Contrary To Musk's Claims, Lidar Has Some Advantages In Self Driving Technology [soylentnews.org]
Artificial Eyes: How Robots Will See In The Future [soylentnews.org]

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