How to make the future driving experience safer, more comfortable and more intelligent is the key for the auto makers to win.
Chinese LiDAR provider Benewake (Chinese: 北醒) officially launched its automotive-grade LiDAR AD2 designed for L2+, L3, and L4 autonomous driving on its New Product Release Conference in Beijing, on 22 December, 2022.
Li Yuan, the CEO and founder of Benewake, also announced its closing of a Series C2+ round of financing, led by Changchun FAWSN Group (Chinese: 一汽富晟). Previously, it also received fundings from a host of other investors, they include Shunwei Capital (Chinese: 顺为资本), CCB Trust (Chinese:建信信托), China Electronics Technology Corporation (Chinese: 中国电子科技集团有限公司), Jiangmen Venture Capital (Chinese: 将门创投), Guohai Innovative CCI Capital (Chinese: 国海创新), Fenghou Capital (Chinese: 丰厚资本), and Tianqi Capital (Chinese: 天启资本).
The automotive-grade LiDAR, AD2, features 512 channels and 120 x 75° FOV with a maximum detection range of 200 meters. The product has a superior level of sensing components along with a ultra-high data density, which is able to plot three million data points per second. As Dr. Li mentioned at the launch meeting that the targeted clients of AD2 are OEMs and autonomous driving system providers.
Headquartered in Beijing and founded in 2015, Benewake focuses on autonomous driving, CV2X, rail transit, civil aviation, shipping and industrial applications. The company owns over 100 patents and exports its LiDAR products to over 60 countries and regions around the world. The company provides a full range of businesses in China and abroad, including R&D, manufacturing, sales, and services of LiDAR.
Meanwhile, the company reached a strategic collaboration with Jabil (JBL:NYSE), and the AD2 will achieve a mass production under the partnership with Jabil in 2023 and delivered to the clients. By now, AD2 has achieved a number of orders from different car models, totaling 180,000 AD2s that will be equipped on vehicles.
In the LiDAR industry in China, 2022 is the year of LiDAR commercialization. The competition in China’s LiDAR industry is heating up, a number of LiDAR companies including RoboSense (Chinese: 速腾聚创), Hesai Technology (Chinese: 禾赛科技) and LSLIDAR (Chinese: 镭神智能) also introduced their new LiDAR products during the past two months.