The AT512 has 512 laser channels and a maximum detection range of over 400 meters.
Chinese LiDAR maker Hesai Group (NASDAQ: HSAI) has announced the ultra-long-range ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) LiDAR AT512, which it said is its top-of-the-line killer product.
The AT512 has 512 laser channels and offers a range of 300 meters at 10 percent reflectivity, with a maximum range of more than 400 meters, according to a January 8 press release by the company.
It has an industry record point rate of 12.3 million points per second, multiples ahead of ADAS competitors, resulting in the highest resolution point cloud among any lidar manufacturer at 2,400×512, it said.
The product’s sleek physical design measures 160x100x45 mm and offers a 120-degree horizontal field of view and a 25.6-degree vertical field of view, according to Hesai.
The AT512 is designed to enhance ADAS systems by providing ultra-high resolution 3D environmental scanning to improve vehicle perception, greatly improving the vehicle’s ability to detect objects at a distance, it said.
“This game-changing lidar means AT512 equipped ADAS systems will have 40% more reaction time to avoid dangerous road conditions and significantly improve transportation safety,” Hesai said.
Hesai is currently delivering the AT128 ADAS LiDAR, which is used by the Max version of Li Auto vehicles.
In December, Hesai announced it had surpassed 300,000 cumulative LiDAR deliveries, making it the first vehicle LiDAR company in the world to achieve that milestone. It saw single-month deliveries top 50,000 units in December.
For LiDAR products, more laser channels mean higher performance, but also higher cost.
For the ADAS market, Hesai is looking to package more laser channels in its AT series at a lower cost, the company said in its prospectus for US listing in February 2023.
Hesai also publicly demonstrated its new ultra-thin ET25 ADAS lidar, which is designed to be mounted behind a vehicle’s windshield.
Hesai said it has partnered with leading OEMs to integrate the ET25 into production vehicles, with production scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2025.
The company unveiled the ET25 on April 14, 2023, with the “ET” in the name standing for Extremely Thin and the “25” referring to its height of just 25 mm.
Hesai also announced in the overnight press release that it has completed construction of a 740,000-square-foot manufacturing research and development center named “Maxwell” after Scottish physicist James Maxwell’s famous equations.
The facility has a 90 percent automation rate of more than 100 production processes, with a cycle time of 45 seconds per LiDAR unit, Hesai said.
This article was first published by Phate Zhang on CnEVPost, a website focusing on new energy vehicle news from China.
