All posts tagged: Lidar

BYD launches Seagull EV with LiDAR for ,000 — first in its class

BYD launches Seagull EV with LiDAR for $13,000 — first in its class

Published by skeptic

The Seagull is now the first A00-class EV with a roof-mounted LiDAR. BYD launched the 2026 Seagull with a LiDAR starting at about $13,000, bringing smart-driving tech to its most affordable EV. BYD’s cheapest Seagull EV upgraded with LiDAR Starting at just 69,900 yuan ($10,300), the Seagull was BYD’s best-selling purely electric vehicle last year. Sold as the Dolphin Surf in Europe, and Dolphin Mini in other overseas markets, the electric hatchback ranked as the fifth best-selling EV in the world in 2025, with nearly 450,000 deliveries. For the 2026 model year, BYD is upping the ante once again. BYD launched the 2026 Seagull EV in China on May 11, maintaining its ultra-affordable starting price of just 69,900 ($10,300). That’s for the base Vitality Edition, with a CLTC driving range of up to 305 km (190 miles). The new Seagull is available in six versions with two battery options. Advertisement – scroll for more content The base Vitality and Freedom models are powered by a 30.08 kWh battery, providing a CLTC range of 305 km …

Rivian (RIVN) mulls making its own lidar as it builds full autonomous driving stack

Rivian (RIVN) mulls making its own lidar as it builds full autonomous driving stack

Published by skeptic

Rivian is considering manufacturing its own lidar sensors in the United States, potentially through a partnership with Chinese firms, as the EV maker aggressively vertically integrates its entire autonomous driving stack. The move would add in-house lidar production to an autonomy strategy that already includes custom silicon chips and proprietary AI software — positioning Rivian as one of the most vertically integrated players in autonomous driving outside of Tesla and Waymo. Rivian eyes domestic lidar production According to a Reuters exclusive, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe confirmed the company is in “active discussions” with lidar firms about producing sensors domestically rather than buying directly from Chinese suppliers. The rationale is straightforward: Chinese companies like Hesai Group and RoboSense dominate the market for affordable, compact lidar sensors. But buying directly from Chinese suppliers raises national security concerns among U.S. lawmakers, creating supply chain risk for any automaker relying on the technology. Advertisement – scroll for more content Scaringe told Reuters that “all the real choices are coming out of China” at the price point automakers need — …

Ouster’s new color lidar is coming to replace cameras

Ouster’s new color lidar is coming to replace cameras

Published by skeptic

The tech industry has spent the last decade asking whether self-driving cars need lidar sensors, cameras, or all of the above. Lidar company Ouster says it has a new answer: put them both in the same sensor. On Monday, the San Francisco-based company announced a new lineup of lidar sensors it calls “Rev8,” all of which offer so-called “native color lidar.” These sensors are capable of capturing color imagery and three-dimensional depth information at the same time, doing the work of two sensors in one. Ouster CEO Angus Pacala said the development has been a decade in the making at his company, and he wasn’t shy about his ambitions for the new product lineup in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch, calling it the “holy grail of what a roboticist has always wanted.” “For all of human history, it’s been: you buy a lidar sensor, you buy a camera, and you try to make sense of the combination with some higher level reasoning, and waste an enormous amount of time doing this,” he told TechCrunch. “And …

Lidar-maker Ouster buys vision company StereoLabs as sensor consolidation continues

Lidar-maker Ouster buys vision company StereoLabs as sensor consolidation continues

Published by skeptic

Lidar-maker Ouster has acquired StereoLabs, a company that makes vision-based perception systems for robotics and industrial applications, for a combination of $35 million and 1.8 million shares. The deal is the latest in a march towards consolidation among perception sensor suppliers. Just last month, MicroVision bought the lidar assets of the buzzy-but-now-bankrupt Luminar for $33 million. Ouster itself has played the M&A game a fair amount, too. In 2022, the company merged with rival player Velodyne. The year before that, it bought lidar startup Sense Photonics. This consolidation is happening right as companies and investors rush to build businesses around “physical AI” — a broad term that encompasses everything from humanoid robotics and drones to self-driving cars and automated systems in warehouses. Even more obscure suppliers are raising big funding rounds as these technologies develop. Some startups are even trying to spin up entirely new sensor modalities. Ouster cofounder and CEO Angus Pacala told TechCrunch in an interview that he had been eyeing StereoLabs for years. He said he sees lidar as “the core component …

Luminar lines up million bidder for its lidar business

Luminar lines up $22 million bidder for its lidar business

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Luminar has reached a deal to sell its lidar business to a company called Quantum Computing Inc. for just $22 million, unless it receives better offers by a deadline of 5:00 p.m. CT on Monday. The lidar-maker, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December, already announced plans to sell its semiconductor subsidiary to Quantum Computing Inc. for $110 million. The deals have to be approved by the bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of Texas before they are finalized. Luminar founder and former CEO Austin Russell has signaled interest in submitting a bid for the lidar assets and tried to buy the whole company in October, before it filed for bankruptcy. The company is currently trying to serve him with a subpoena for information stored on his cell phone, as Luminar evaluates whether it wants to make any legal claims against him related to the board-run ethics inquiry that led to his resignation last May. It’s not known how many other bids Luminar might receive by Monday’s deadline. Quantum Computing Inc. has been …

China’s Hesai will double production as lidar sensor industry shakes out

China’s Hesai will double production as lidar sensor industry shakes out

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Chinese lidar maker Hesai announced plans on Monday to double its production capacity from 2 million units to 4 million units this year, as it looks to corner the global market for the laser-based sensors. That would be well up from the 1-million-plus unit mark that Hesai hit in 2025. Hesai’s push to grab more market share comes just one month after leading U.S. lidar-maker Luminar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That company is not expected to continue operating once its bankruptcy plan is approved, though it is looking to sell the lidar business. Hesai has raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the last few years and is now listed on both the Nasdaq and the Hong Kong stock exchanges. That’s despite fighting an uphill battle against the U.S. government, which has accused the company of working closely with China’s military industry — a charge that Hesai has challenged. At the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Hesai told reporters it was able to double the production target because of “accelerating demand” in …