Yifan sent from Fujiasi Temple
smart car reference | Public account AI4Auto
Lidar is really difficult.
A spokesperson for Bosch, the world's largest automotive supply chain manufacturer, recently confirmed clearly that the company will abandon the development of self-developed lidar.
Bosch started lidar research and development in 2020 and has conducted a number of road tests before. As a redundant standard hardware for intelligent driving, lidar has started large-scale implementation this year.
So has Bosch given up on the lidar route? As the world's largest automotive Tier 1 supplier, Bosch is certainly not giving up.
The spokesperson also confirmed that it still maintains its focus on the lidar track and has only given up on self-research because lidar may be too difficult.
Bosch abandons self-developed lidar
In July this year, there was news that the well-known Tier 1 Bosch would give up the research and development of lidar. At that time, it did not attract widespread attention. After all, lidar plays an important role in the current wave of automobile intelligence. As a well-known supplier, Bosch cannot give up the competition. key to the future.
A Bosch spokesperson recently confirmed the news to the German media, saying that the company has decided not to invest any resources in developing lidar and will instead invest resources in the research and development of other radars.
Judging from its recent exhibits at the Munich Auto Show, Bosch's turn has achieved initial results. The new generation of radar sensors has improved in detection range and resolution, and can effectively identify narrow objects such as motorcycles.
The spokesperson also gave two explanations for abandoning lidar research and development: technical complexity and time to market .
Focusing on the present, although lidar is just a gadget, it is actually very difficult to "gnaw" and requires a lot of investment in research and development.
Looking to the future, time to market is still an issue. At present, there are well-known domestic players such as Hesai Technology and Sagitar Juchuang on the track. Bosch's lidar may not be able to compete after mass production.
It is difficult to build now, and it may not be easy to sell once built , so Bosch decided to terminate the research and development of lidar.
However, Bosch added that it will still retain lidar-related professional reserves internally to facilitate future product evaluation and integrate it into its own products as needed.
Giving up is not denial . Bosch does not think that lidar is no longer important for autonomous driving.
Judging from the information disclosed by the spokesperson, Bosch's decision is due to its own helplessness and has nothing to do with the current dispute between "pure vision" and integrated perception autonomous driving routes.
Bosch has not denied its original intention to enter the market to build lidar.
Bosch’s history of developing lidar
In January 2020, Bosch announced that it would launch a lidar designed specifically for automobiles, but did not announce hardware details.
Bosch calls the move "embracing autonomous driving" and believes that developing vision solutions for cameras and radar in parallel can maximize safety .
But at this time, it started a little late. Compare Hesai Technology, a player that has been launched in the United States this year and achieved profitability. The latter has two products officially released in 2020, and they are still on two tracks: car specifications and robots. .
According to German media reports, Bosch has previously conducted a number of autonomous driving use case tests on highways and urban roads, during which the superiority of lidar was further confirmed.
For example, when a motorcycle approaches a car at high speed at an intersection, lidar can more reliably detect such objects with narrow outlines. And it won't be obscured by adverse light like a camera.
After three and a half years of hard work, Bosch finally gave up on the "hard nut" of lidar based on current research and development status and future market performance.
On the one hand, giants such as Bosch are experiencing difficulties in developing lidar, and on the other hand, players such as Hesai Technology and Sagitar Juchuang are flourishing on the track.
Even the man who was "far ahead" was "dissuaded" by Hu Xiaobo, chairman of Leishen Intelligence, in public:
I want to advise Mr. Yu that Huawei should stop making lidar. His gadget can’t do what Sagitar and I can do.
DJI silently withdrew from the fiercest mass-produced car competition. After the Xpeng P5, there was no progress in the implementation of car regulations. Even other Xpeng models have also switched to the Sagitar.
Therefore, the automobile industry has undergone major changes over the past century, with new things emerging one after another. The giants that were always successful in the past have also encountered difficult issues and have no choice but to turn.
The giant Bosch's abandonment of research and development of lidar may be just a signal for industry development:
The smart car supply chain has entered a reshuffle period, and the division of labor in the industry has been re-clarified.
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