PALO
ALTO, Calif., July 18,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Hesai Technology (Nasdaq: HSAI),
the global leader in lidar safety technology for automotive and
robotics applications, announced that they have been selected
by Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) to be the exclusive
long-range lidar supplier for its next-generation robotaxi
platform Yichi 06. Baidu is an internet tech giant who is also one
of the world's largest robotaxi service providers.
According to industry analysts, this lidar deal is worth an
estimated $200-300 million based on
Baidu's plans to deploy 100,000 robotaxi vehicles in China. It's expected to be the first
widespread application of robotaxi in the Chinese market.
According to forecasts by Pacific Securities, the Chinese
robotaxi market is expected to exceed $162.6
billion, in 2025 and $403.6
billion in 2030, making it one of the largest market
opportunities across the autonomous driving landscape. As a result,
lidar demand will continue to grow as more autonomous vehicle
companies seek better sensor performance, safety and
perception.
Baidu's Apollo Go 5th generation robotaxis, which are currently
in operation in Wuhan and other
cities in China, already use
Hesai's Pandar series high-performance lidar as the main lidar.
Just this year, the sixth-generation Apollo Go autonomous vehicles
will also be deployed to the market. According to Baidu, the 6th
generation vehicle's cost has dropped by 60% compared with the
previous generation, to a pricepoint of only around $28,500.
According to Yole's "Lidar for Automotive 2024" report,
Hesai dominated the global robotaxi lidar market in 2023,
comprising an impressive 74% share of the current $124 million market. Among the top ten L4
autonomous driving companies globally, nine of them, including
Zoox, NVIDIA and Nuro, use Hesai's high-performance lidar.
Building off the company's success, Hesai's total lidar shipment
volume has exceeded 380,000 units as of the first quarter of this
year.
"The autonomous driving industry has rapidly evolved in recent
years and today's surge of autonomous driving in China is a testament to the breakthroughs
we've made in smart driving," said David Li, CEO &
Co-Founder of Hesai. "Advanced sensors like lidar are accelerating
the adoption of autonomous driving."
Hesai has already established a strong global business presence
in the US, Europe and Asia with customers spanning over 40
countries, extending support and engineering resources across the
globe to facilitate close collaboration with customers, and further
enabling safe and reliable intelligent driving worldwide.
About Hesai
Hesai is the global leader in
three-dimensional light detection and ranging (lidar) solutions.
The Company's lidar products enable a broad spectrum of
applications across passenger and commercial vehicles with advanced
driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle fleets
(autonomous mobility). Hesai's technology also empowers robotics
applications such as last-mile delivery robots and logistics robots
in restricted areas. The Company's commercially validated solutions
are backed by superior research and development capabilities across
optics, mechanics, electronics, and software. Hesai integrates
lidar designs with an in-house manufacturing process, facilitating
rapid product development while ensuring high performance,
consistent quality and affordability. Hesai has established strong
relationships with leading automotive OEMs, autonomous vehicle, and
robotics companies worldwide, covering over 40 countries.
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SOURCE Hesai Technology