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A new XPeng P5 sedan
Courtesy of XPeng
As the cost of some of the most expensive pieces of autonomous driving technology comes down, self-driving cars at a reasonable price may be here sooner than investors might think.
Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer
XPeng
(Ticker: XPEV) showed on Wednesday its new sedan, the P5, which is equipped with an autonomous vehicle platform that the company describes as “market leader”.
Pricing for the P5 isn’t available, but Livox’s new lidar sensor isn’t going to break the bank. Prices should be available at Shanghai Auto Show and should not be the same as other XPeng models.
XPeng calls its autonomous driving technology XPILOT. The P5 will be equipped with version 3.5, which includes 32 sensors: two lidars (short for laser-based radar), 12 ultrasonic sensors, five radars and 13 high-resolution cameras. XPILOT 3.5 also has a “high-precision positioning unit” and a “fusion with double perception” that offers a 360 ° view.
It sounds complicated because it is. It is important, however. Vehicles need a 360 ° 3-D view in order to be able to work autonomously in a safe manner. And these sensors are only part of the system. XPeng uses the Snapdragon auto-grade computing platform from
Qualcomm
(QCOM) as well as the company’s own software to process the information these sensors collect to make decisions on the fly.
Lidar also appears to be a key element for autonomous vehicles, partly due to the technology’s ability to generate a 3D image. Lidar can also detect difficult-to-see objects that cameras and conventional radar can miss.
One of the problems for lidar is that the technology has been too expensive until now. Complete systems can cost $ 100,000, which means the vehicle must generate revenue to justify the price for the average consumer. This is why autonomous vehicles are piloted in limited quantities as robotic taxis. For example, Waymo operates a fleet of robotic taxis in Arizona called Waymo One. The vehicles have what looks like old-fashioned police lights that sit on their roofs. This bump is essentially made up of many lidar sensors that create a 3D image of the world.
However, other companies are cutting the cost of lidar and taking a different approach than the rotating roof rack.
Innoviz Technologies
(INVZ) announced this week that it has reduced the cost of its sensors by 70%. Livox, XPeng’s lidar supplier, offers sensors that cost less than $ 600.
Falling costs have led to more recent lidar announcements from other automakers. Volvo will have one
Luminar Technologies
(LAZR) sensor in production until 2022.
BMW
((
BMW.
Germany) uses lidar systems from Innoviz and
Magna International
(MGA).
Porsche
(PAH3.Germany) supported lidar commissioning
Aeva Technologies
(AEVA). All partnerships and investments aim to achieve a higher level of autonomous driving on the roads in the next few years.
Tesla
(TSL) does not use lidar, although full autonomy is in its sights. Tesla uses a mix of cameras, ultrasound and radar sensors, as well as its computer platform and software. Elon Musk’s company is launching updated versions of its full self-driving software and expects to achieve fully autonomous driving by the end of 2021.
Tesla drivers will soon be offered a certain amount of autonomous driving for purchase. And based on the other announcements from lidar companies and automakers, others may not be far behind. This would allow drivers to text and drive safely as early as 2023.
Autonomous driving and electric vehicle stocks are struggling these days as money rotates from more speculative growth stocks. The shares of XPeng, the company with the latest lidar news, are down about 10% over the week and about 28% year-to-date. Stocks of publicly traded lidar companies have fallen more than 50% from their 52-week high. The
Defiance Next Gen SPAC Derived ETF
(SPAK) is down around 28% from February’s 52-week high. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average,
Home to many of the great stocks of the old economy, it is up about 9% over the same period.
Tesla stocks are the notable exception, up about 5% since the start of the year. Even so, Tesla stock is 17% off its January 52-week high.
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