Synopsis

On April 15^th, San Jose, California based Velodyne Lidar, a provider of LiDAR sensing solutions, introduced a new ecosystem partner program – Automated by Velodyne – designed to accelerate innovation, as well as increase adoption and use of 3D LiDAR technologies. Specifically, the program provides various forms of business and technology assistance to Automated by Velodyne partner companies.

Salients

• 40 Companies – Approximately 40 companies have already signed on as ‘Automated with Velodyne’ participants. The companies themselves fall into eight different categories including Autonomous Vehicles, ADAS, Mapping, Industrial, Smart City, Drone/UAV, Robotics and Security.
• Multiple Aspects of Support – Under the Automated by Velodyne program, Velodyne will provide multiple forms of direct assistance in three general areas – 1) Technology and Products, 2) Sales and Marketing, and 3) Service and Support.

Analysis

• Positive Trends – The launch of the Automated by Velodyne program comes on the heels of a number of recent positive business and product announcements made by the company. In January 2020, Anand Gopalan, Velodyne’ s former CTO assumed the position of CEO within the company. David Hall, Velodyne’s founder and previous CEO, remains Chairman of the Board. In February 2020, Gopalan’s position as CTO was filled by Mathew Rekow, formally the company’s Senior Director of Optical Engineering.

Under Gopalan’s stewardship as CTO, Velodyne came to market in 2019 with a series of products in rapid succession including Alpha Prime, a LiDAR system for long range sensing, Velarray, an embeddable fixed-laser sensor, and VelaDome, a sensor technology for close range sensing. In June 2019, Velodyne acquired Mapper.ai, a provider of on-demand, machine-readable maps. In the previous month, the company won a patent challenge brought by competitor Quanergy.

• Competitive Market – The LiDAR market is certainly not what it was when David Hall began developing his laser 3D mapping systems for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, nor the same as in 2016 when Velodyne Lidar was spun off from Velodyne Acoustics as a separate company. Even with Velodyne’s recent successes, additional funding rounds and deep sensing expertise, the company faces a large number of well-funded competitors, most targeting perception, navigation and mapping applications for the automotive sector. Many are offering novel solutions beginning with the emergence of solid-state LiDAR solutions and continuing to 3D Flash LiDAR systems. Examples include:
  • Hesai Technology – $127M Series C (January 2020)
  • Cepton Technologies – $50M Series C (February 2020)
  • Luminar Technologies – $100M (July 2019)
  • Sense Photonics – $26M (June 2019)
  • Ouster – $60M (May 2019)

• Position of Strength – Velodyne is the highest volume supplier of LiDAR systems to the automotive industry, with more than 250 customers globally according the Velodyne representatives. With multiple LiDAR product lines, partnerships with major autonomous mobility solution providers such as Optimus Rid and NAVYA, Velodyne is operating from a position of strength.
• Ongoing Opportunities – While Velodyne and its competitors are flush with investment and working with key industry partners, the opportunities for additional LiDAR solutions remain both for nimble start-ups and established firms (including those outside of automotive applications). Same, too, for the ongoing requirement for investment into LiDAR suppliers.
• Non-Monetary Value and New Business Opportunities – On its face, Velodyne’s “Automated with Velodyne” program resembles other robotics ecosystem initiatives. Universal Robots UR+ program comes to mind. In a similar manner, “Automated with Velodyne” is really a cooperative business network that directly benefits Velodyne and its partners in the form of cross promotion, mutual support and increased sales. Viewed in this light, these business ecosystems result in monetary-based value exchange.

Equally important for ecosystems participants are non-monetary forms of value. The “Automated with Velodyne” program will also act as an innovation engine, or better yet, a direct innovation conduit, providing Velodyne with insights into unconsidered, unexpected and novel use cases which will arise organically. These programs have the additional benefit of surfacing technical and market challenges, which canny companies like Velodyne Lidar rightly understand to be new business opportunities.

Over time, the second order benefits of the “Automated with Velodyne” program will outweigh any near-term advantages derived from the initiative, and there will be many. It is the combination of immediate and far reaching benefits resulting from business ecosystem programs like “Automated with Velodyne” that will drive the LiDAR sector forward and increase LiDAR sensor deployments exponentially over time.

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Dan Kara is Vice President, Robotics at WTWH Media where he charted with driving the company’s robotics and intelligent systems initiatives. Prior to joining WTWH, he was Practice Director, Robotics at ABI Research and Chief Research Officer for Myria RAS, both research and advisory services firms focused on automation, robotics and intelligent systems. Dan was also President of Robotics Trends, an integrated media and research firm serving the personal, service and mobile robotics markets.