Hesai Technology has announced a series of lidar developments, starting with a new ultra-long-range ADAS lidar. The AT512 offers a range of 300 meters at 10% reflectivity, with a maximum range of over 400 meters. Hesai claims that its ADAS lidar holds an industry record of 12.3 million points per second, multiples ahead of its ADAS competitors, resulting in the highest resolution point cloud among any lidar manufacturer at 2400 x 512 overall resolution.
The physical design measures just 160 x 108 x 45mm while offering a 120° field of view and a 25.6° vertical field of view. The AT512 is designed to greatly enhance ADAS systems by improving the vehicle’s perception capabilities, using 3D environmental scans at ultra-high resolution, which improves a vehicle’s ability to detect objects at long range.
David Li, co-founder and CEO of Hesai, commented, “Our core belief that intelligent manufacturing needs to be part of our R&D efforts has helped us move beyond traditional 1550 nanometer laser-based lidar to more advanced 905 nanometer technology as borne out by the superior performance, quality and reliability of our AT512.”
The company has also revealed a new ultra-thin ET25 ADAS lidar, designed to be installed behind a vehicle’s windshield. The ET25 is designed for an easier integration, to help maintain the vehicle aerodynamics and keep the lidar clear of dirt and debris. It provides 250 meters of range at 10% reflectivity and received a 2024 CES Innovation Award for best new product.
“The ET25 is a revolutionary product that provides an ultra-thin design without sacrificing performance,” said Li. “We’re already working with leading OEMs to integrate the ET25 into series production vehicles with the start of production planned for Q1 of 2025.”
Continuing the new developments is Hesai’s completed construction of a new 740,000ft2 R&D center for manufacturing. The Maxwell Innovation Center includes an advanced lidar testing lab that will utilize many smart industrial robots, allowing for the automation of over 100 production processes with an automation rate of 90% and a 45-second cycle time per lidar unit.
The facility uses a proprietary smart cloud manufacturing execution system (MES) capable of precisely tracking the entire production chain and allows for any problem to be traced back to the source, precisely located and promptly controlled.
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