Velodyne Lidar
| Company type | Public (formerly) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Lidar technology |
| Predecessor | Velodyne Acoustics (division) |
| Founded | 2016 |
| Founder | David Hall |
| Headquarters | San Jose , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Anand Gopalan (former CEO), Theodore "Ted" Tewksbury (CEO as of Nov 2021), David Hall (founder, former chairman) |
| Products | Lidar sensors for autonomous vehicles, ADAS, mapping, robotics, infrastructure, smart cities |
Number of employees | Not specified |
| Parent | Merged with Ouster in February 2023 |
Velodyne Lidar is a lidar technology firm located in Silicon Valley, with its main office in San Jose, California. Originating as a division of Velodyne Acoustics, it became an independent entity in 2016. By mid-2020, the company had approximately 300 clients. Its product portfolio includes sensors utilized in autonomous vehicles, advanced driver-assistance systems, mapping solutions, robotics, infrastructure projects, and smart city initiatives. In February 2023, Velodyne Lidar completed a merger with Ouster.
History
Velodyne was established in 1983 by David Hall as an audio-focused enterprise specializing in subwoofer technology. The company’s venture into lidar began in 2005 when David Hall and his brother Bruce participated in the DARPA Grand Challenge, a competition for driverless cars. This event highlighted the shortcomings of camera-based and existing lidar technologies, motivating Velodyne to create multi-laser sensor systems for the 2007 competition. Their design featured a rotating assembly of 64 lasers that measured time-of-flight to generate a comprehensive 360-degree three-dimensional map of the environment, producing nearly one million data points per second—significantly surpassing previous technologies.
In 2011, Velodyne contributed an early sensor prototype to the Smithsonian Institution’s Robotics Collection. The lidar division was spun off as Velodyne Lidar, Inc. in 2016, supported by a $150 million funding round from Ford and Baidu. The company increased manufacturing output with the launch of a large-scale facility in San Jose in 2017 and opened a research and development center in Alameda, California. That same year, Velodyne supplied sensors to university teams participating in the SAE/GM AutoDrive Challenge.
Beginning in 2018, Velodyne collaborated with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to advocate for autonomous vehicle technologies aimed at improving road safety and initiated the yearly "World Safety Summit on Autonomous Technology." The company also partnered with Nikon and Veoneer to enhance lidar production capabilities.
In July 2019, Velodyne expanded its software portfolio by acquiring mapping and localization technology from Mapper.ai. David Hall stepped down as CEO in January 2020, with Anand Gopalan taking over; Hall initially stayed on as chairman and remained the largest shareholder. On July 2, 2020, Velodyne merged with Graf Industrial Corp., becoming publicly listed on NASDAQ under the tickers VLDR and VLDRW.
Hall was removed from his chairman role in January 2021 following internal disputes but continued holding substantial ownership stakes while his wife stayed on the board. Theodore "Ted" Tewksbury succeeded Gopalan as CEO in November 2021. In February 2022, shares of Velodyne surged by over 50% after Amazon invested $40 million through stock purchase.
In November 2022, Velodyne agreed to an all-stock merger with Ouster that evenly divided ownership between shareholders. The merger finalized in February 2023; the unified company now operates under the Ouster brand and is traded on the NYSE as "OUST."
Technology
Velodyne Lidar develops sensor technologies supporting autonomous driving, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), mapping applications, security solutions, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Their sensors are capable of detecting objects up to distances of 300 meters without requiring additional sensor fusion. When installed on vehicles, these sensors generate detailed real-time imagery of road environments, capturing elements such as traffic signs and vegetation.
In April 2017, Velodyne introduced the Velarray—a compact solid-state lidar device that produces directional images rather than full 360-degree views. It offers a horizontal field of view of 120° and vertical coverage of 35°, with a maximum range of 200 meters to improve object detection and braking response times. Designed for unobtrusive vehicle integration, it can be mounted discreetly within rooflines, bumpers, or behind windshields.
That year also saw the debut of the “Alpha Puck” (VLS-128), a lidar unit capable of ranges up to 300 meters specifically engineered for autonomous driving scenarios and highway-speed safety applications.
In 2019, Velodyne launched the VelaDome—a compact lidar sensor designed for embedding with a wide field of view measuring 180° by 180° to detect nearby objects effectively. Additionally, they released Vella software to facilitate sensor integration into ADAS functionalities such as lane keeping assist, automatic emergency braking, and adaptive cruise control. Later that year came the Alpha Prime sensor aimed at enhancing vehicle safety while delivering high-resolution mapping data.
In 2020, Velodyne unveiled its smallest lidar sensor yet—the Velabit—and introduced the Velarray H800 solid-state sensor based on micro-lidar array technology tailored for automotive use cases. They also released the Velarray M1600 designed for autonomous mobile robots and last-mile delivery applications.
Partners and customers
Starting in 2010, Google (now under the umbrella of Alphabet) initiated trials of autonomous vehicles in the San Francisco Bay Area, utilizing Velodyne’s lidar technology. The initial self-driving car prototype developed by Alphabet, based on a Toyota Prius, incorporated Velodyne’s HDL-64E lidar sensor. Nevertheless, Alphabet eventually discontinued the use of Velodyne sensors in its autonomous fleet.
In 2012, Velodyne Lidar entered into an agreement with Caterpillar to provide lidar sensors for off-road machinery employed in mapping quarries, agricultural lands, and construction environments. Between 2012 and 2015, Velodyne’s rotating HDL-32E sensors were integrated into mobile mapping platforms operated by firms such as Nokia Here, Microsoft Bing Maps, Tencent, Baidu, and TomTom. Additionally, mapping solution providers like Topcon and Leica Geosystems adopted Velodyne’s lidar scanners for their mobile mapping applications.
By 2016, Ford Motor Company had expanded its autonomous vehicle research fleet by incorporating Velodyne’s “Ultra Puck” lidar sensors. Ford divested its 7.6% equity stake in Velodyne Lidar by the close of 2020.
In 2017, Velodyne collaborated with Renovo, serving as the primary lidar supplier for Renovo’s AWare autonomous mobility platform, and secured a contract to supply perception systems to Mercedes-Benz.
The year 2018 saw Velodyne forge partnerships with several companies including Embark, Geodetics, Voyage, Exyn Technologies, Yellowscan, Phoenix LiDAR, NAVYA, ThorDrive, and Postmates. That year also included a $25 million investment from Nikon, supporting a joint initiative focused on autonomous vision technologies.
In 2019, Velodyne extended collaborations with firms such as Clearpath Robotics, Holomatic, Kaarta, and Hyundai Mobis to integrate lidar capabilities into robotics platforms and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).
During 2020, the company announced new agreements with entities including TLD, EasyMile, Emesent, Baidu, and Local Motors aimed at broadening the application of its lidar technology within autonomous vehicle and robotics sectors.