BYD has taken a stake in RoboSense and is expected to start carrying the latter's LiDARs in its models to be launched next year.
(Image credit: BYD)
Chinese car companies are looking at autonomous driving as the crown jewel, and LiDAR is seen as an essential component of that. BYD has now signed a deal with a local supplier to pave the way for future LiDAR adoption in its models.
BYD announced today that it signed a strategic cooperation agreement with LiDAR supplier RoboSense at its Shenzhen headquarters on December 23, which will accelerate its efforts to make its cars smarter.
The importance of the partnership was underscored by the presence of BYD Chairman and President Wang Chuanfu and RoboSense Founder and CEO Qiu Chunxin at the signing ceremony.
In the era of automotive intelligence, the car will become the intelligent terminal with the largest amount of value, and the current growth of new energy vehicles (NEVs) is beyond imagination, and the performance of NEV products continues to improve rapidly, BYD said.
LiDAR is able to obtain centimeter-level precision environmental perception information due to the characteristics of active three-dimensional imaging, and has become an essential core component of intelligent driving systems, according to BYD.
RoboSense was founded in 2014 and has more than 600 LiDAR-related patents by 2020.
RoboSense has many years of experience in the LiDAR industry, and its second-generation intelligent solid-state LiDAR product M1 has achieved a revolutionary evolution from stacked 1D scanning to chip-based 2D scanning, according to BYD.
RoboSense's products provide intelligent environmental sensing information for vehicles in different scenarios, including high-speed and urban areas, and can provide safety for driving, BYD said.
Through the partnership, the two will jointly develop leading-edge smart cars and lead the smart car industry together, BYD said.
BYD also mentioned that it had taken a stake in RoboSense, but did not provide more details.
Weibo blogger @痛快舒畅, a long-time BYD follower, said BYD had previously formed a joint venture with autonomous driving unicorn Momenta, and with its partnership with RoboSense, BYD gets a complete intelligence puzzle.
BYD will fully cooperate with RoboSense next, and next year's models will start using the latter's LiDARs, he said.
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