Buckle up because transportation is evolving double quick time. It wasn’t long ago that lane keep assist, approaching object alerts, automatic parallel parking and much more were, at best, concepts in an engineer’s head. Now the next generation of automotive evolution is made possible by the wonders of LiDAR technology. It won’t be long before autonomous driving will be a standard feature on cars. The next generation of automobiles will redefine the driving experience, and investors can participate in the transportation transformation in a variety of ways, including the upcoming public listing of a leading LiDAR company, Cepton Technologies, which aims to go public early this year in a SPAC merger with Growth Capital Acquisition Corp. (Profile). Cepton was chosen by General Motors Company as its sole-source provider of lidars for the period 2023–2027, with installation of Cepton-based lidar sensors in as many as nine different models. Cepton is also in various levels of engagement with all top-10 automotive OEMs including Ford Motor Company. Others in the lidar space, including Luminar Technologies Inc. , are trying to keep pace albeit with production wins representing far fewer number of vehicles. Not all EV manufacturers are opting for LiDAR tech; for example, Tesla is a vocal champion for the pure vision-based approach to autonomous driving.
Time of flight (ToF) LiDAR, the most popular type, rapidly pulses infrared light off surrounding objects, measuring the light’s reflection time to determine the distance to an object with amazing precision. Working in unison with onboard computers, LiDAR represents the “eyes” of a self-driving vehicle to generate a constantly updating three-dimensional map of the road and surrounding environment to safely maneuver with little to no human input.
According to Fortune Business Insights, the global LiDAR market is growing at a 22.7% annual rate. Driven by deployment into many different applications, the market is forecast to rise from $1.32 billion in 2018 to $6.71 billion by 2026.
To say LiDAR is space-age technology is completely accurate. It was developed by NASA to monitor satellites and measure distances in space before it found its way into the automotive industry where the technology continues to evolve and become miniaturized and less expensive. While still early in the tech’s existence, the possibilities are becoming realities in what LiDAR can do for autonomous driving in the future.