[251118] #Hesai #Waymo #Xpeng

Vol. 257 | 2025.11.18

Category	Company	Article
LiDAR	Hesai	China LiDAR maker Hesai looks to prove Musk wrong with USD 200 model
Self-driving	Waymo	Waymo says its self-driving taxis will take customers on freeways for the first time
Autonomous Driving	Xpeng	Xpeng Unveils Three Robotaxi Models as It Challenges Tesla on Autonomous Ground
ADAS	Ford	Ford Announces Expansion of BlueCruise ADAS Tech to 4 New Models in Europe
LiDAR	LiDAR	How LiDAR Became the Eyes of Autonomous Trucking

China LiDAR maker Hesai looks to prove Musk wrong with USD 200 model

📌 Hesai introduced a USD 200 automotive LiDAR model, aiming to make high-performance perception widely affordable and counter long-standing concerns about LiDAR’s commercial viability.

• Hesai developed a new ATX LiDAR priced at USD 200, reducing costs from traditional USD 10,000 units through in-house production of lasers, receivers, and drivers.

• The company holds a 33% share of the global automotive LiDAR market and supplies 24 customers, including major Chinese automakers.

• Li Auto data shows that LiDAR-equipped vehicles can avoid 90% of fatal highway accidents and reduce ordinary-road collisions by up to 20%.

• Hesai initially collaborated with Nvidia, Bosch, and OEM partners to create a USD 500 LiDAR in 2022 before shifting to full internal component manufacturing.

• Over one million Hesai LiDAR units have been sold to date, with the ATX model entering mass production this year.

• The company expects USD 200 LiDAR to become the standard for scalable Level 3 adoption as European OEMs increasingly view LiDAR as essential.

• Hesai plans to double annual output to over one million units and establish its first overseas factory in Southeast Asia by 2026–27.

• The firm raised HKD 4.16 billion in a recent Hong Kong listing to fund production expansion and broader global penetration.

Waymo says its self-driving taxis will take customers on freeways for the first time

📌 Waymo will begin offering fully autonomous freeway rides in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the Bay Area, marking the first U.S. robotaxi service to operate driverlessly at highway speeds.

• Waymo will launch autonomous freeway rides for paying customers in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area, expanding beyond its previous city-street operations.

• The company says its sixth-generation autonomous system is now ready for higher-speed, complex freeway environments after years of testing.

• Waymo is the first U.S. operator to offer rider-only freeway trips without an onboard safety driver, according to company representatives.

• A recent test ride showed safe merging, lane changes, speed compliance, and hazard avoidance during 40 minutes of freeway driving in Northern California.

• The expansion comes amid rising competition from Tesla, Zoox, and Chinese robotaxi developers, all accelerating their own deployments.

• Waymo plans to more than double its service footprint to at least 12 U.S. cities by 2026, including new markets like Denver and Detroit, and will add new vehicles such as the Zeekr RT.

• The company highlights its strong safety record, exceeding 100 million driverless miles, while noting plans to roll out freeway capability gradually.

• Freeway service is seen as crucial for real-world ridehailing usability in regions where interstate travel is part of daily mobility patterns.

Xpeng Unveils Three Robotaxi Models as It Challenges Tesla on Autonomous Ground

📌 Xpeng unveiled three mass-production robotaxi models powered by its VLA 2.0 AI system and Turing chips, signaling a major push toward scalable, fully autonomous mobility by 2026.

• Xpeng announced plans to deploy three fully autonomous robotaxi models by 2026, aiming to challenge Western competitors like Tesla.

• The vehicles integrate LiDAR, radar, and high-definition cameras to deliver human-level situational awareness and end-to-end perception.

• Xpeng’s in-house VLA 2.0 system processes visual inputs into driving actions without relying on high-resolution maps, enabling real-time adaptation.

• Each robotaxi uses four proprietary Turing chips providing 3,000 TOPS of compute, the highest known performance in commercial AV platforms.

• Volkswagen will adopt both the VLA 2.0 platform and Turing chips, marking Xpeng’s first major external OEM partnership.

• All three robotaxi models will be manufactured on existing production lines, reducing costs and supporting large-scale deployment.

• Xpeng will also offer “Robo,” a new Level 4-capable driver-assistance mode for consumer vehicles based on the same hardware architecture.

• The company selected Amap as its first ecosystem partner, indicating plans for broader integration and potential global expansion of its robotaxi services.

Ford Announces Expansion of BlueCruise ADAS Tech to 4 New Models in Europe

📌 Ford will expand its BlueCruise Level 2 ADAS to four additional models across Europe by 2026 as EU safety regulations tighten and competition in the region’s assisted-driving market accelerates.

• Ford will extend its BlueCruise “hands-off, eyes-on” Level 2 ADAS to the hybrid and electric Puma, and the plug-in hybrid Kuga and Ranger starting in spring 2026.

• BlueCruise was the first hands-off highway system approved in Europe and is now available in 17 countries, covering over 135,000 km of designated “Blue Zones.”

• The expansion aligns with the EU’s 2024 General Safety Regulation, which mandates multiple ADAS functions for all new vehicles sold in the bloc.

• Europe’s ADAS landscape remains dominated by Level 1 and Level 2 systems, including Tesla Autopilot and Ford BlueCruise, while GM prepares Super Cruise for a future launch.

• Chinese companies such as WeRide and Pony.ai are deploying Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous systems in European transit and logistics applications.

• Tesla continues to face regulatory delays for its FSD (Supervised) in Europe, despite extensive testing and growing customer petitions for approval.

• Nio has reduced its ADAS R&D investment in Europe due to strict regulations and low regional sales volume, which increase validation cost per vehicle.

How LiDAR Became the Eyes of Autonomous Trucking

📌 LiDAR has become the core perception technology enabling Class 8 trucks to progress from assisted driving to scalable Level 4 autonomous freight operations.

• LiDAR has shifted from a supplemental driver-assist feature to an essential component of autonomous truck perception systems.

• Developers such as Aurora, Kodiak, Torc, Plus, and TuSimple depend on multi-sensor architectures powered by LiDAR for safe and scalable Level 4 autonomy.

• Manufacturers including Luminar, Innoviz, Hesai, Ouster, and Aeva continue advancing long-range, high-resolution, and cost-efficient LiDAR solutions for commercial fleets.

• LiDAR enables precise 3D mapping, obstacle detection, and road geometry modeling across all SAE levels, becoming critical at Level 3 and Level 4.

• Class 8 trucks use LiDAR for 360-degree perception, redundancy, and high-speed data fusion in all weather and lighting conditions.

• Declining LiDAR cost and size are accelerating adoption not only for full autonomy but also for ADAS retrofits and mixed-fleet safety upgrades.

• Fleet operators increasingly view LiDAR and sensor fusion understanding as essential to evaluating automation ROI and long-term deployment strategies.

* Contents above are the opinion of ChatGPT, not an individual nor company

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The Future of AVs: Self-Driving Cars Explained!

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