LiDAR rides China's wave

In 2022, the market was at a crucial junction. Indeed, Yole Group identified significant issues between the PC and LCV segment and the robotaxi segment. By 2023, however, the PC&LCV market had clearly taken the lead.

Pierrick Boulay, Senior Technology & Market Analyst, Automotive Semiconductors at Yole Group adds: “The journey of robotaxi services began in August 2016 with NuTonomy’s launch in Singapore. This was followed by a significant milestone in 2017, the entry of Waymo and Cruise in Phoenix, AZ, and San Francisco, CA. Subsequently, Chinese companies such as DiDi, AutoX, and Baidu joined the fray, rolling out services in various cities across the globe. This rapid proliferation of robotaxi services pushed the LiDAR market for robotaxis significantly ahead of that for passenger cars.”

However, in 2023 and 2024, Waymo and Cruise markedly slowed their operations due to a series of incidents, directly impacting the robotaxi market. This slowdown could also affect the long-term market outlook as these companies strive to regain public trust.

In 2023, the robotaxi market was valued at $124 million, while the PC&LCV market stood at $414 million. The passenger car market, more than three times the size of the robotaxi market, is experiencing a substantial take-off.

In this context, Yole Group launches its new dedicated report, LiDAR for Automotive 2024. In addition to updating key market figures, the 2024 edition provides a comprehensive overview of LiDAR for automotive applications. It describes a scenario for LiDAR dynamics in automotive applications within the dynamics of the autonomous automotive market. With this 2024 report, the market research and strategy consulting company delivers an in-depth understanding of the ecosystem and players. Furthermore, this new study offers key technical insights and analyses into future technology trends and challenges.

The LiDAR for Automotive report also benefits from a new teardown report developed by the Automotive Systems Teardown team at Yole Group. The Automotive LiDAR Comparison 2024 offers a relevant overview of the technology choices from 4 leading LiDAR companies, Valeo, RoboSense, Seyond, and Hesai, together with a detailed cost comparison.

These two new LiDAR products confirm Yole Group’s expertise in this domain and offer a unique view of autonomous driving innovation and business opportunities.

Since 2018, nearly 200 design wins have been monitored, with 124 scheduled for commercialisation in 2024 or soon thereafter. Notably, almost 90% of these are from Chinese OEMs, who are aggressively pushing to integrate LiDAR into their vehicles. Unlike their European and US counterparts, which primarily limit LiDAR to the high-end F segment, Chinese OEMs are incorporating LiDAR into the more affordable D segment. Remarkably, in 2023, the first LiDAR-equipped car in the C segment was introduced. These vehicles are much more affordable than those in the F segment, leading to higher production volumes of LiDAR-equipped cars and consequently driving significant price reductions for LiDAR technology.

Benjamin Pussat, Senior Analyst, Systems Teardown at Yole Group comments: “This fast-growing market is an opportunity for chipmakers. Most integrated circuit suppliers are non-Chinese brands and should benefit from this, except maybe for some critical components because high-volume production allows LiDAR manufacturers to design their own chips (ASIC) to replace the costly ones. This also reduces Chinese manufacturers’ dependence on foreign chipmakers.”