Velodyne LiDAR Inc., a global provider of light, detection and ranging, or LiDAR technology, has announced the completion of a combined $150 million investment from co-investors Ford Motor Co. and Chinese search engine company Baidu Inc.
According to Velodyne, this investment will allow the company to rapidly expand the design and production of high-performance, cost-effective automotive LiDAR sensors, accelerating mass adoption in autonomous vehicle and advanced driver assistance systems applications and therefore accelerating the critical, transformative benefits they provide.
Over the past decade, Velodyne developed four generations of hybrid solid-state LiDAR systems incorporating the company’s proprietary software and algorithms that interpret rich data gathered from the environment via highly accurate laser-based sensors to create high-resolution 3-D digital images used for mapping, localization, object identification and collision avoidance. Velodyne’s LIDAR solutions 
are capable of producing 300,000 to 2.2 million data points per second with a range up to 200 meters at centimeter-level accuracy. The company’s says its high-performance LiDAR technology has been recognized by global automotive OEMs and rideshare customers as a critical element enabling the development of fully autonomous vehicles.
“LiDAR continues to prove itself as the critical sensor for safe autonomous vehicle operation,” said David Hall, founder and CEO, Velodyne LiDAR. “This investment will accelerate the cost reduction and scaling of Velodyne’s industry-leading LiDAR sensors, making them widely accessible and enabling mass deployment of fully autonomous vehicles. We are determined to help improve the goal of safety for automotive vehicles as soon as possible, as well as empower the efficiency autonomous systems offer.”
“We want the cost to be low enough to be used for all cars. We envision a safer world for the millions of automotive drivers across the globe,” said Marta Hall, Velodyne president of business development.
“From the very beginning of our autonomous vehicle program, we saw LiDAR as key enabler due to its sensing capabilities and how it complements radar and cameras,” added Raj Nair, Ford executive vice president, product development and chief technical officer. “Ford has a long-standing relationship with Velodyne and our investment is a clear sign of our commitment to making autonomous vehicles available for consumers around the world.”
Baidu says it also shares Velodyne’s vision to promote safety for autonomous vehicles on a global scale, and in particular in Baidu’s home market in China, where it is already testing its fleet of autonomous vehicles. “Baidu is developing autonomous vehicles with the intention to increase passenger safety and reduce traffic congestion and pollution in China,” said Jing Wang, senior vice president and general manager of the autonomous driving unit of Baidu. “Our investment will accelerate our efforts in autonomous driving with what, in our view, are the best LiDAR sensors available today and advance Velodyne’s development of increasingly sophisticated LiDAR sensors.”
Velodyne expects an exponential increase in LiDAR sensor deployments in autonomous vehicles and ADAS applications over the next several years, driving high revenue growth. To fulfill the high demand for its products, the company says it will continue to expand its resources across engineering, operations and manufacturing. In connection with this minority investment round, the company plans to expand its board of directors to include two independent industry executives.
