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Last month, we started our search for a robotics stock to replace the robotics ETF in our Nanalyze Disruptive Tech Portfolio. Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) stock is undoubtedly the best option for investors interested in the robot-assisted surgery theme, but we’re not yet convinced that’s the robotic automation market with the most potential, though there’s plenty of upside when it comes to the market for minimally invasive surgery. We think the grass could be even greener when it comes to self-driving cars. Yes, yes, we know: It’s one of those emerging technologies we’re always waiting for to emerge, outside of some San Francisco techno-hipster enclave where a few startups are testing robotaxis. That’s why we’re interested in a pick-and-shovel stock that would give real exposure to autonomous vehicles now before the big boom. And that’s why we continue to return to the idea of LiDAR stocks.
So far, though, we’ve steered clear of LiDAR stocks since they started to pop up in the public markets in 2020 by merging with special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). The frenzy over SPACs has largely subsided, and we’re left with eight LiDAR stocks from which to choose. Here’s how they’ve performed since all debuted at the same price – $10 a share.
Company Ticker Price Performance
Luminar Technologies LAZR $14.42 +44%
AEye Inc LIDR $4.61 -47%
Aeva Technologies AEVA $5.52 -57%
Cepton Inc CPTN $4.12 -59%
Ouster Inc OUST $4.11 -59%
Innoviz Technologies INVZ $3.65 -64%
Velodyne Lidar VLDR $2.28 -77%
Quanergy QNGY $2.02 -80%
Credit: Nanalyze
As beaten down as most these stocks are, we need to watch out for value traps, something we talked about in our recent piece on Avoiding Value Traps in Beaten Down SPACs. Three of these SPACs have pre-SPAC valuation rounds (courtesy of PitchBook) we can compare against today’s valuations.
Company Name Round Valuation
(USD Millions) Date Market Cap
(USD Millions) Premium / Discount
Aeva Technologies Series B $400 Aug-19 $927 +132%
Innoviz Technologies Series C $344 Jun-19 $500 +5%
Velodyne Lidar Series B $1780 Dec-18 $456 -74%
Source: Pitchbook
While Aeva and Innoviz are trading at a premium to their 2019 venture round valuations, Velodyne’s valuation has dropped nearly 75% since their Series B in late 2018 (more on this in a bit).
When it comes to the largest company by market capitalization, Luminar is currently 5X the size of their nearest competitor, Aeva Technologies, and worth more than all their competitors combined.
Bar chart showing Market cap comparison for 8 LiDAR stocks
Continued:
https://www.nanalyze.com/2022/03/lidar-stocks-investors-radar/
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 9, 2022 – Aeva® (NYSE: AEVA), a leader in next-generation sensing and perception systems, today announced that its Aeries 4D LiDAR sensors are now supported on the NVIDIA DRIVE autonomous vehicle platform. Aeva’s Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) 4D LiDAR sensors detect 3D position and instant velocity for each point at distances up to 500 meters, bringing an added dimension to sensing and perception for safe autonomous driving.
NVIDIA DRIVE is an open, end-to-end platform that enables developers to develop, train, test and validate safe self-driving technology at scale.
“Bringing Aeva’s next generation 4D LiDAR to the NVIDIA DRIVE platform is a leap forward for OEMs building the next generation of Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous vehicles,” said Soroush Salehian, Co-Founder and CEO at Aeva. “We believe Aeva’s sensors deliver superior capabilities that allow for autonomy in a broader operational design domain, and our unique features like Ultra Resolution surpass the sensing and perception capabilities of legacy sensors to help accelerate the realization of safe autonomous driving.”
Gary Hicok, Senior Vice President of Engineering at NVIDIA, added, “Aeva delivers a unique advantage for perception in automated vehicles because it leverages per-point instant velocity information to detect and classify objects with higher confidence across longer ranges. With Aeva as part of our DRIVE ecosystem network, we can provide customers access to this next generation of sensing capabilities for safe autonomous driving.”
In addition to instant velocity detection, Aeva’s sensors have advanced 4D Perception™ capabilities that deliver new features not possible with typical legacy LiDAR sensors including Ultra Resolution™ and 4D Localization™.
Ultra Resolution: A real-time camera-level image of the world with up to 1000 lines per frame with no motion blur for the static scene, providing up to 20 times the resolution of legacy time of flight LiDAR sensors. Image segmentation enables the detection of roadway markings, drivable regions, vegetation, road barriers, as well as detecting road hazards like tire fragments at up to twice the distance of legacy time of flight LiDAR sensors. Instant velocity data allows for high confidence detection and tracking of dynamic objects such as oncoming vehicles and other moving objects at distances up to 500 meters.
4D Localization: Per-point velocity data enables real-time ego vehicle motion estimation with six degrees of freedom, motion compensation and on-line sensor extrinsic calibration to aid with sensor fusion. These vehicle estimation features also enable accurate vehicle positioning and navigation without the need for additional sensors, like IMU or GPS, for safe autonomous navigation in GPS-denied and featureless environments like tunnels and parking structures.
Aeva’s FMCW technology also aids developers of autonomous vehicles with these unique advantages over legacy LiDAR sensors that use time-of-flight technology:
Freedom from interference from sunlight and other LiDAR sensors.
Elimination of retroreflector blooming and ghosting from highly reflective objects like street signs and roadway markings.
Greater ability to see through airborne particulates like dust, fog, rain, and snow.
About Aeva Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: AEVA)
Aeva’s mission is to bring the next wave of perception to a broad range of applications from automated driving to industrial robotics, consumer electronics, consumer health, security and beyond. Aeva is transforming autonomy with its groundbreaking sensing and perception technology that integrates all key LiDAR components onto a silicon photonics chip in a compact module. Aeva 4D LiDAR sensors uniquely detect instant velocity in addition to 3D position, allowing autonomous devices like vehicles and robots to make more intelligent and safe decisions. For more information, visit www.aeva.com, or connect with us on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Aeva, the Aeva logo, 4D LiDAR, Aeries, Ultra Resolution, 4D Perception, and 4D Localization are trademarks/registered trademarks of Aeva, Inc. All rights reserved. Third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Forward looking statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believe,” “project,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result,” and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward looking statements in this press release include our beliefs regarding our financial position and operating performance for the fourth quarter of 2021 and business objectives for 2022, along with our expectations with respect to our collaborations with third parties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including, but not limited to: (i) the ability to maintain the listing of Aeva’s securities on the New York Stock Exchange, (ii) the price of Aeva’s securities, which may be volatile due to a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which Aeva plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors, changes in laws and regulations affecting Aeva’s business and changes in the combined capital structure, (iii) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations and to identify and realize additional opportunities, (iv) the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which Aeva operates, (v) the risk that Aeva and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize Aeva’s products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so, (vi) the risk that Aeva may never achieve or sustain profitability; (vii) the risk that Aeva will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which many not be available on acceptable terms or at all; (viii) the risk that Aeva experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations, (ix) the risk that third-parties suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations, (x) the risk of product liability or regulatory lawsuits or proceedings relating to Aeva’s products and services, (xi) the risk that Aeva is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; and (xii) the effects of the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic or other infectious diseases, health epidemics, pandemics and natural disasters on Aeva’s business. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors, and for a further discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our financial results, please refer to our filings with the SEC, including our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2021. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Aeva assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Aeva does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.
What is 4D LIDAR?
New LIDAR sensor can plot velocity as a fourth dimension
16/03/2020
This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas exhibited a range of autonomous and semiautonomous vehicles, along with a plethora of associated sensor technologies.
New LIDAR sensor
One of the more interesting is so-called ‘4D-LIDAR’, delivered as ‘LIDAR-on-Chip Technology’ by the company Aeva.
LIDAR, short for ‘Light Detection and Ranging’, measures distance to a target using reflected laser light. Aeva’s 4D-LIDAR technology takes this sensing to a new level. Besides measuring the distance to objects and establishing their position in x, y and z coordinates, it also plots velocity as a fourth dimension.
Objects moving away from the sensor appear red, those moving towards, blue, and those stationary, white. Aeva’s 4D-LIDAR sensor can illuminate two million points a second, with a maximum range of three hundred metres. This makes it ideally suited for autonomous cars.
This technology is also relevant to other autonomous platforms, such as drones, where it could enable the recognition of target motion – which is useful for obstacle avoidance amongst other things. Higher performance versions of this sensor could have useful military application in the future.
Starting some DD here..
Mention on LWLG board
Aug 1 (Reuters)
- Aeva Technologies Inc (AEVA.N) on Monday said it has reached a deal with a German firm to sell its sensors for industrial uses such as automating manufacturing lines with machines and self-driving mining trucks........
aeva-strikes-deal-sell-industrial-sensors-germany-automation-firm-2022-08-01/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer ugc" target="_blank" class="keychainify-checked">https://www.reuters.com/technology/aeva-strikes-deal-sell-industrial-sensors-germany-automation-firm-2022-08-01/
8/1/22 On watch list.... Long and short term Calls.
Fundamental transition.
This just got a push from Stock Gumshoe; via Stansberry recco.
Yeah, euh, i'm like all alone here makin' money, reminds me of my early days... Lol ANT
We got 10~~ easy 10k usd for me, holdin' some freebies as well, promisin', ANT
9,65~~ ANT
Top 10 Lidar Companies to Watch out for in 2021
August 3, 2021, by Henry John
https://www.ai4beginners.com/lidar-companies-self-driving-car-sensor-manufacturers/
LIDAR is one of the three major autonomous vehicle sensors. The technology has enabled self-driving cars to see more details than they would normal detect on radars and cameras.
For this reason major self-driving car companies including Google’s Waymo are employing LIDAR technology in their driverless car development.
It’s no wonder the LIDAR market was valued at $1.1 billion in 2019 by Grand View Research and is expected to grow at 13.4% over the next seven years.
Self-driving car sensors like LIDAR are highly valuable to the development of autonomous cars and this can’t be overstressed. With driverless cars expected to roll out by or before 2025, the market demand for LIDAR technology is surging as expected.
And here are the companies developing and supplying LIDAR technology today:
1. Velodyne LiDAR
Velodyne LiDAR is a technology company that manufactures sensor products and real-time LiDAR sensors. It offers light detection and ranging scanners.
The company evolved after founder/inventor David Hall developed the HDL-64 Solid-State Hybrid LiDAR sensor in 2005. Since then, Velodyne LiDAR has emerged as the leading developer, manufacturer, and supplier of 3D real-time perception systems used in a variety of commercial applications including autonomous vehicles, vehicle safety systems, 3D mobile mapping, 3D aerial mapping, and security.
David Hall founded Velodyne LiDAR in 2007. Its headquarters is in Morgan Hill in California.
Find out more on Crunchbase
2. Luminar
Luminar is an autonomous vehicle sensor and software company with the vision to power every autonomous vehicle by delivering the only LiDAR capable of making them both safe and ubiquitous. Founded in 2012, Luminar is a 350-person team across Palo Alto, Orlando and Colorado Springs, and has raised more than $250M from prominent venture funds. Today, 12 of the world’s top 15 automotive companies are working with Luminar’s breakthrough technology as part of their global autonomous development programs, including Volvo Cars, Toyota Research Institute, and VW/Audi’s subsidiary, AID.
Find out more on Crunchbase
3. AEye
AEye develops advanced vision hardware, software, and algorithms that act as the eyes and visual cortex of autonomous vehicles. Since the demonstration of its solid-state LiDAR scanner, AEye has pioneered breakthroughs in intelligent sensing.
Founded in 2013 by Luis Dussan, Ransom Wuller, and Barry Behnken, AEye is headquartered in Dublin, California.
Find out more on Crunchbase
4. Ouster
Ouster builds high-resolution lidar sensors for use in autonomous vehicles, robotics, and many other applications. Using its unique multi-beam flash lidar design, Ouster brings Moore’s Law to lidar with an all-semiconductor approach to 3D sensing. Ouster is a privately held, venture backed company located in San Francisco, California.
Find out more on Crunchbase
5. Baraja
Baraja is a 3D machine vision systems manufacturer. It has invented a new type of LiDAR called Spectrum-Scan which delivers the highest performance available to address the challenge of self-driving cars.
Baraja is a rapidly growing start-up, with a revolutionary LiDAR for self-driving vehicles. The company is based in Sydney, Australia, with offices in China and the USA. It is quickly expanding worldwide, hiring through Europe and Asia, closely collaborating with car manufacturers to iterate and refine its vision of what LiDAR needs to be.
Find out more on Crunchbase
6. Quanergy Systems
Quanergy Systems is a Silicon-Valley-based technology company offering smart sensing solutions. It is the leading provider of time-of-flight LiDAR sensors and perception software for real-time capture and processing of 3D spatial data and object detection, identification, classification and tracking. Its sensors are disruptive in price, performance, reliability, size, weight, and power, while meeting the mass deployment requirement of being solid state.
Its solutions are applicable in numerous sectors including transportation, 3D HD mapping, surveying, localization, navigation, aeronautics, mining, agriculture, drones, robotics, industrial automation, security, smart spaces and 3D-aware smart devices, delivering improved safety, efficiency and quality of life.
Find out more on Crunchbase
7. Innoviz Technologies
Innoviz is a leading manufacturer of high-performance, solid-state LiDAR sensors and perception software that enable the mass-production of autonomous vehicles. InnovizPro is a solid-state LiDAR that offers outstanding performance and value for automotive and other applications. InnovizOne is a cutting-edge, automotive-grade LiDAR sensor that provides superior 3D sensing for Level 3-Level 5 autonomous driving. Innoviz is backed by top-tier strategic partners and investors, including Magna International, Samsung, Aptiv, Magma Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures, SoftBank Ventures Asia, China Merchants Capital (SINO-BLR Industrial Investment Fund, L.P.), 360 Capital Partners, Glory Ventures, Naver, Shenzhen Capital Group, New Alliance Capital, Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services, Phoenix Insurance Company and others.
Find out more on Crunchbase
8. Aeva
Aeva develops a new sensing & perception paradigm for autonomous machines. Its technology brings together the best of vision, depth, and motion sensors into a single product with superior performance.
Compared to today’s best in class, it provides greater range and resolution across weather conditions and a new dimension to precisely measure velocity of every pixel in the scene.
Founded in 2016, Aeva is based in Mountain View, California.
Find out more on Crunchbase
9. Cepton Technologies
Cepton Technologies is an electrical and electronics company that provides 3D sensing solutions designed for LiDAR products for automotive, industrial, and mapping markets. It specializes in industrial robotics, security, 3D perception, and sensors.
The company was founded in 2016 and headquartered in San Jose, California.
Find out more on Crunchbase
10. Sense Photonics
Sense Photonics is an RTP high technology company that enables reliable, modular, and configurable 3D sensing. The company produces advanced LiDAR and 3D sensor solutions for an autonomous vehicles, robotics, and industrial automation markets. Their core technology protected by over 200 patents enables a simple, high-performance, solid-state solution with no moving parts that can uniquely meet the rigorous performance, reliability and cost requirements for automotive and industrial applications.
Sense Photonics was founded in 2016 and is based in San Francisco, California, United States.
Find out more on Crunchbase
The following article on LiDAR stocks is from three weeks ago but its still relevant today, and specifically mentions Aeva.
It's time to buy the dip on the LiDAR stocks
by CONCERNS OF THE FUTURE 24 days ago in STOCKS
https://vocal.media/trader/it-s-time-to-buy-the-dip-on-the-li-dar-stocks
LiDAR stocks were once the hype; then people dumped them and they're now trading at attractive entry prices.
*This article isn't financial advice. All content should be considered opinionated. We are not responsible for any gains & losses. Please see a financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
Recently, Waymo expanded its robotaxi service to San Francisco. This comes after many years of Waymo testing its vehicles in closed courses and then started offering service in Phoenix a few years ago.
Waymo's closest competitor, Cruise (a majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary of General Motors), has been doing testing in SF for the past few years. While Cruise has yet to start offering robotaxi service, GM has announced that they will produce their driverless shuttle called the Origin.
In June of last year, Amazon acquired self-driving startup Zoox for $1.2 billion. Argo AI, the autonomous vehicle technology startup backed by Ford and VW, is offering rides using autonomous vehicles in California using Lyft's rideshare platform.
For Tesla, they've been offering their autopilot software as a subscription service. Elon Musk has said that Tesla's robotaxi network is key to the company's massive valuation.
The overall theme is that for the past few years, investment in self-driving technology has accelerated and we're closer to a world where robotaxis roam our roads and take us from Point A to Point B.
What is LiDAR?
LiDAR is a remote sensing technology that uses a pulsed laser beam to measure distances. In the field of autonomous driving, the only company that isn't using LiDAR (until lately) is Tesla.
In a tweet, someone in Palm Beach, Florida spotted a Tesla Model Y equipped with LiDAR. Since it had a California manufacturing license plate, it's assumed that Tesla is now using LiDAR. Tesla was reported to have partnered with LiDAR manufacturer Lunimar, according to Bloomberg, but the exact details of the partnerships are unknown.
The only thing we do know about the partnership is that Luminar sold LiDAR equipment to Tesla, but that's about it. Also, it's unlikely that Tesla will consider using LiDAR considering the many complications that come with deploying LiDAR.
Furthermore, the cost of LiDAR is enormous. By some accounts, LiDAR equipment could cost as much as $75,000. However, by mass producing LiDAR equipment, experts believe that the cost of LiDAR equipment will decrease significantly. Reuters reported that Velodyne plans on selling its LiDAR equipment below $500. Luminar, another LiDAR manufacturer, also plans on pricing its LiDAR equipment at around $500. Waymo is also considering selling LiDAR sensors to businesses outside of the self-driving industry.
Back in the day, LiDAR costs were so expensive that Google decided to acquire Waymo and General Motors decided to acquire Cruise. By producing the equipment on a massive scale, they were able to drive down the cost of production by reapin the benefits of economies of scale.
With that, as the automotive world looks to implement LiDAR equipment into their vehicles to make them capable of self-driving, the demand for LiDAR equipment will surge. With that surge in demand, the LiDAR manufactuers will see a lot of business and will be reaping huge profits. Right now, the industry is young but like the electric vehicle industry, this industry is also positioned to boom big time.
Whether we're talking about Luminar, Velodyne, Innoviz, Ouster, Aeva, or MicroVision, the LiDAR startups of today will be LiDAR giants in the future. In my humble opinion, out of all the names I've mentioned in this paragraph, I'm more skeptical about MicroVision than the rest and I like Luminar the most out of the rest but at the same time, I can see all of them thriving as a whole.
Also, while the LiDAR equipment might take away from the appeal of the car, the industry is looking to add sleeker design and is also looking to make them smaller so that they look less noticable on the vehicles.
As various federal and state government agencies look to approve the operations of robotaxi networks in various parts of the world, we will be seeing companies like Waymo and Cruise reporting their first profit in their operating history after many years of R&D and patience in developing a functioning robotaxi fleet.
Once we start seeing robotaxis becoming functional, we will then see trucks driving autonomously. Autonomous trucks will help alleviate the truck driver shortage and at the same time, we will start seeing our supply chains becoming more efficient than ever.
People will be concerned that robotaxis and autonomous trucks will remove many jobs and many side hustle opportunities. At the same time, our law enforcement agencies as well as our goverment officials will be glad to see that we are having fewer fatalities on our roads and our economy is operating more efficiently.
As for investors that are concerned about whether the boom in LiDAR equipment is sustainable or not, it's important to note that in the future, for every new vehicle that is built, it needs LiDAR equipment. With that, the LiDAR equipment manufacturers are positioned to see a ton of recurring sales in the future, as long as car companies continue to produce newer cars.
In the meantime, invest wisely!
hey Xena....I bought some just above 7...question is is it going to 5? what is cool is they are going to use their liar not just for cars but for factory automation inspections
Ownership and other info in this article:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ownership-structure-aeva-technologies-inc-101957001.html
Two confusing LIDAR companies:
Tue, September 7, 2021, 5:00 AM
In this article:
AEVA
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Explore the topics mentioned in this article
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., September 07, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aeva (NYSE: AEVA), a leader in next-generation sensing and perception systems, today announced it will present and host individual and group investor meetings at the following upcoming investor events.
Wed, September 8, 2021, 6:00 AM
DUBLIN, Calif., September 08, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIDR), the global leader in adaptive, high-performance LiDAR solutions, today announced the appointment of Jay Hohauser as vice president of ADAS, North America. Hohauser is an automotive industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience scaling profitable businesses domestically and internationally. He reports to newly appointed SVP of Advanced Driver Assist Systems (ADAS), Bernd Reichert.
Based in Detroit, Hohauser will lead AEye’s U.S. sales for passenger and commercial vehicle ADAS deployments. In this role, he will work directly with automotive OEMs and AEye’s Tier 1 partners to drive widespread adoption of AEye’s LiDAR. Hohauser comes to AEye from Valeo, where he led U.S. OEM sales and business development efforts for the Comfort & Driving Assistance Systems Business Group, including LiDAR sensor sales, and was responsible for $1B in annual revenues. Prior to Valeo, he spent two decades managing OEM accounts at various automotive suppliers, where he continuously exceeded profitability and growth target
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