7th DVN Lidar Conference

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The 7th annual DVN Lidar Conference was held on 18-19 November in Wiesbaden, Germany. With 150 attendees representing automakers, suppliers, and the research community; 20 exhibitors, and 30 speakers, it was—yet again!—a great success despite the current difficulties for the automotive business in Europe. The detailed DVN Report and VODs are available for all attendees, with presentation source material available to gold members. Here are some key takeaways:

Market growth is accelerating in China, where volume will exceed 1.2 million units in 2024. The number of design wins increased from 34 in 2023 to 68 presently, and 14 vehicle models get lidar on each and every vehicle.
This is pushed by the high take rate of NOA applications for NEVs, which has doubled in one year to 40 per cent. NOA is much easier to implement than L³ (traffic jam/highway pilot).
L^3,4,5 applications are not yet mature. Everybody is waiting for the first L³ highway pilot (130 km/h) launch, which should happen in 2027. Even so, the huge development and validation effort required to launch these applications means we should not expect significant volume in this decade. Robotaxis, shuttles, and logistics vehicles are also maturing auto-lidar applications.
Market growth is also pushed by a steep price reduction curve. The $200 lidar price (Chinese NOA specs) will be reached in 2025.
So far, the competition with high-resolution radar has a limited impact on lidar growth in China; cheap lidars can do the job better, which helps to get short development and validation time. A few car models are being built with vision-only systems in the D segment, but with more limited features.
Lidar integration is growing easier. Bumper and rooftop integration are already validated, and behind-the-windshield will come after some work to optimize the performance.

Special thanks to our exhibitors, speakers, and sponsors who contributed to the conference and allowed us to have a clear view of the status and directions of the lidar technologies and market.