Bosch, the global leader among Tier 1 automotive suppliers, recently announced its exit from the development of high-end autonomous vehicle LiDAR sensors and that it is reallocating its resources toward mmWave radar and other sensing technologies.
Of the Germany-based companies ranking in top 10 across the world, Continental is the last one holding on to LiDAR. It held a joint exhibit with AEye at IAA Mobility 2023. The Continental Group has been rumored over the past year to be contemplating a shift in focus toward its more profitable tire and plastics businesses and potentially divesting itself of the automotive component operation.
Bosch follows the ZF Group that turned away from LiDAR a year ago. ZF invested US$100 million in Germany's Ibeo. Bosch ventured into LiDAR sensors three years ago and officially exited the field in July. Although the company is channeling its resources into radar technologies, it still considers LiDAR critical for L3 autonomous vehicles and leaves the door open for potential future applications.
Industry insiders point out that the exit of these German giants is largely due to LiDAR's underwhelming failure to secure orders from automakers as expected. Furthermore, high-level autonomous driving, such as L3, is still stuck in regulatory limbo in many countries, making companies reluctant to burn cash on LiDAR.
While LiDAR's performance has been lackluster in European and American markets, the technology finds strong footing in the Chinese supply chain, particularly among Chinese automakers. According to data from Yole Intelligence, as of 2022, 47% of the global LiDAR market share was held by China's Hesai Technology, followed by Innovusion at 15%, Valeo at 13%, and RoboSense at 9%. Innovusion was recently listed in the US stock market, as disclosed by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
The field Bosch has turned to is mmWave radar manufacturing. The current top contenders in the field are the 24GHz SRRs and 77GHz radars. Price cuts and crash courses for radar integration into cars are common techniques firms use to compete for orders. Semiconductor players are contributing to this raging market by launching new chip capacities.
Some industry insiders think the road ahead is, however, fraught with challenges as automakers and Tier 1 suppliers possess deeper understanding of mmWave radar chips and the overall systems. Bosch's entry into this space undoubtedly raises the stakes in supply chain competition.
One emerging technology the manufacturers in the radar scramble might eventually turn to is 4D imaging mmWave radar. Unlike LiDAR, which suffers in suboptimal weather conditions like fog, snow, and rain, and comes with high manufacturing costs, 4D imaging radar addresses these shortcomings effectively. However, due to the mandatory testing and validation period for automotive applications, the adoption of 4D imaging radar is still limited.
Article translated by Julie Chang
