Hesai CEO Says Company Will Design Its Own Chips to Meet Lidar Sensor Needs
World's largest lidar maker seeks in-house chip development as Chinese EV makers demand more computing power for autonomous driving
Quick Look
- Hesai, the world's largest lidar sensor maker for cars, plans to design and manufacture its own chips rather than rely on third-party suppliers, CEO David Li Yifan announced at a media briefing.
- The company says existing chip providers cannot meet the specific needs of lidar sensor development, as no other company develops chiplets specifically for lidar makers.
- The announcement comes as Chinese EV manufacturers increasingly demand powerful computing capabilities to support advanced autonomous driving features, with Xpeng claiming its indigenous Turing chip outperforms Nvidia's Drive Orin X by three times.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Chinese EV manufacturers have been aggressively investing in smart vehicle technologies, with computing power becoming a critical competitive factor. The industry is racing to develop level 4 autonomous driving capabilities, requiring increasingly powerful processors to handle data from multiple sensors and cameras.
“If we use chips provided by third-party suppliers, we cannot guarantee that the chips would cater to our needs in developing lidar sensors,” said David Li Yifan, CEO of Hesai, the world’s largest maker of lidar sensors for cars, at a media briefing last week. “We want to design and make the chips ourselves because no one else specifically develops chiplets for a lidar maker.”
Computing power has been in high demand over the past decade as Chinese EV makers have doubled down on smart vehicles, banking on artificial intelligence and digital technologies to make vehicles more autonomous and comfortable. A system-on-chip (SoC) that processes data from a vehicle’s cameras and sensors offers strong computing power to support rapidly evolving intelligent features.
Xpeng’s indigenous Turing chip, designed for level 4 autonomous driving capabilities, was three times more powerful than Nvidia’s Drive Orin X installed in its existing smart vehicles, according to He Xiaopeng, CEO of the Guangzhou-based EV maker.
Open Questions
- What is the timeline for Hesai to complete its in-house chip development?
- How much investment will Hesai allocate to chip R&D?
- Will other lidar manufacturers follow similar strategies?
