Vueron Newsletter
No. 200
2025.04.29
| Hyundai Mobis opens R&D center in India to boost global competitiveness | ||
| LiDAR | Hesai secures order for 200,000 LiDARs from Leapmotor | |
| Self-driving | Amazon’s Zoox begins robotaxi testing in Los Angeles | |
| DeepRoute.ai and Qualcomm partner on ADAS | ||
| RTA Adopts LiDAR and Digital Twin Technology for Road Asset Management |
1. Hyundai Mobis opens R&D center in India to boost global competitiveness
- Hyundai Mobis has launched a large-scale integrated R&D center in Hyderabad, India, consolidating its previously scattered facilities.
- The 10-story center includes research labs, data centers, and training rooms, aiming to support global cost, quality, and tech competitiveness.
- India’s rapid market growth—now the third-largest in the world with 5.2 million annual car sales—was a key factor in the expansion.
- Hyundai Mobis highlighted increasing adoption of autonomous driving features and ADAS in India, especially in SUVs and EVs.
- The new center will focus on in-house software development and expand its scope to include AI-driven productivity improvements.
- The company aims to position the Indian center as a global hub and leverage its deep talent pool for innovation in automotive software.
Hyundai Mobis has opened a large R&D center in India to strengthen its global competitiveness and support the growing demand for ADAS and autonomous driving technologies.
2. Hesai secures order for 200,000 LiDARs from Leapmotor
- Hesai Group, China’s leading LiDAR manufacturer, signed a strategic agreement with Leapmotor to supply 200,000 ATX LiDAR units starting in 2025.
- Leapmotor designated Hesai as its exclusive LiDAR provider, integrating the technology across a variety of upcoming vehicle models.
- The ATX LiDAR, featuring Hesai’s latest 4th-gen chip architecture, is praised for its compact size, long range, and ultra-wide angle.
- Hesai’s technology has been adopted by 11 global automakers and dozens of vehicle models since ATX’s launch earlier this year.
- Leapmotor’s C10 and upcoming B10 SUVs are already equipped with Hesai’s LiDAR, bringing advanced sensing to EVs priced as low as RMB 130,000 (~$17,980).
- The B10 received over 31,000 pre-orders in 48 hours, with LiDAR-equipped variants being the most popular among consumers.
- Hesai is also a LiDAR supplier to Li Auto, which will make LiDAR standard on all models starting May 2025.
- Hesai delivered over 500,000 LiDAR units in 2024 and targets 1.2 to 1.5 million in 2025, with more than 80% dedicated to ADAS applications.
3. Amazon’s Zoox begins robotaxi testing in Los Angeles
- Zoox, Amazon’s autonomous vehicle unit, has begun deploying manually driven test vehicles in Los Angeles to collect mapping data for future robotaxi operations.
- This marks Zoox’s sixth U.S. city and a step toward launching commercial services in Las Vegas and San Francisco later this year.
- The current deployment uses retrofitted Toyota Highlanders equipped with Zoox’s autonomous tech, operated by human drivers for initial data gathering.
- Zoox is also testing its fully autonomous, purpose-built robotaxis—designed without a steering wheel or pedals—in Foster City, San Francisco, and Las Vegas.
- Select Zoox employees, media, and vetted guests have already experienced rides in these fully autonomous vehicles.
- The company recently issued a voluntary software recall affecting 258 vehicles due to unexpected hard braking incidents.
- Zoox’s expansion into LA comes as Waymo, its competitor, operates paid robotaxi services in multiple U.S. cities, including LA, Phoenix, and the Bay Area.
Zoox has started robotaxi test operations in Los Angeles, advancing its plan to compete with Waymo in the U.S. autonomous mobility market.
4. DeepRoute.ai and Qualcomm partner on ADAS
- DeepRoute.ai and Qualcomm Technologies have announced a strategic partnership to co-develop high-performance, cost-effective ADAS and autonomous driving systems.
- The solutions will be built on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Ride Platform, particularly the SA8650 model, targeting both LiDAR-based and vision-only ADAS systems.
- Key features supported include Urban Navigation on Autopilot (NOA), Highway NOA, and automated parking for both fuel and electric vehicles.
- The collaboration will focus on optimizing AI models such as end-to-end (E2E) Birds Eye View (BEV) and transformer-based networks for better perception and behavior prediction.
- These models will help vehicles navigate complex real-world conditions like parked cars, narrow roads, irregular intersections, and construction zones.
- DeepRoute.ai has enhanced its vision-only perception algorithms to match the reliability of LiDAR-based systems, even under challenging lighting conditions.
- The Snapdragon Ride Platform supports simultaneous processing of data from up to 16 cameras, multiple radars, and LiDARs, enabling flexible ADAS development for automakers.
- The partnership aims to lower hardware costs while delivering advanced autonomous features to global mass-market vehicles.
DeepRoute.ai and Qualcomm have partnered to co-develop scalable ADAS solutions using Snapdragon Ride platforms, blending LiDAR and vision-based approaches for global deployment.
5. RTA Adopts LiDAR and Digital Twin Technology for Road Asset Management
- Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has implemented LiDAR technology to assess road asset conditions and enhance digital twin data accuracy.
- The initiative supports predictive, preventive, and proactive maintenance strategies as part of RTA’s digital transformation.
- LiDAR improves inspection performance and speed by up to 300% compared to traditional visual methods, enabling rapid data collection.
- The system achieves up to 95% accuracy, significantly improving decision-making for road maintenance and safety planning.
- LiDAR allows safe and efficient assessment of elevated assets like lighting poles, traffic signals, and road signs, reducing the need for manual inspections.
- RTA can now inspect up to 80 km of roads daily—96% more than the 3 km/day capacity of traditional methods—without disrupting traffic flow.
- The technology enables inspections at driving speeds of 30–100 km/h and covers a sensing range of up to 80 meters.
- This adoption enhances the sustainability and operational efficiency of Dubai’s road infrastructure by supporting precise maintenance scheduling through the Asset Condition Index (ACI).
Dubai’s RTA is using LiDAR and digital twin technology to revolutionize road asset monitoring, enabling accurate, large-scale, and predictive maintenance for smart infrastructure management.
*Contents above are the opinion of ChatGPT, not an individual nor company
