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Velodyne is aiming to reduce the cost of its multi-channel Lidar laser rangefinders to below $500 for volume production. It also plans to have multiple channels, from 16 to 32, for the systems to maintain their detection accuracy, said Dr Wolfgang Juchmann, director of sales and marketing for the Lidar division of Velodyne. Driverless car systems are already using 16-channel Lidar sensors that weigh 800 g and generate up to 300,000 data points per second, but these can cost up to $10,000. Velodyne aims to reduce the cost of these systems through volume manufacturing for the automotive market, rather than reduce the number of channels. “The goal is to produce 10,000 units a year; that will help bring the price down,” said Dr Juchmann. “Car makers tell us four channels gives too narrow a view so we are looking at 16, maybe more.” The company is due to deliver the new sensor to car makers in the first quarter of 2016. In the recent Intelligent Vehicle Future Challenge (IVFC) at Changshu city, China, 17 of the vehicles were using Velodyne’s 64-channel Lidar sensor. The IVFC was inspired by a similar challenge in the US organised by DARPA, and involves competition along a varied 13 km course with teams drawn from universities and research labs. The course included urban, off- road and highway settings, with teams offered the option of skipping the off- road setting, and vehicles were judged on safety, speed, ‘smartness’ and smoothness. The 2015 contest added a new challenge for passing other vehicles and was won by China’s Military Transportation University for the second year running using Velodyne’s HDL-64 as its core sensing technology. Price of Lidar set to drop Sensing Platform one China’s Military Transportation University’s IVFC-winning entry, which used Velodyne Lidar technology