In addition, the Internet of Things market will reach mass market maturity faster than cars, which will produce significant commercial value before the middle of this century. In its new white paper Demystifying LiDAR: IoT and Automotive Applications, Industries, and Business Models, ABI Research, a global technology research company, discussed how the unique functions and advantages of LiDAR technology will drive innovation and value across industries.

Although the driverless car market is still the biggest opportunity for LiDAR sensor technology in the long run, there is a more urgent business proposition in various Internet of Things markets.

'As it is expected that the autonomous vehicle market will not take off until the second half of this century, LiDAR suppliers are actively exploring many new use cases in various non automotive vertical fields, such as smart cities, safety and industrial automation. Compared with other sensors such as cameras, radars and infrared sensors, these markets are ready to take advantage of the inherent advantages of LiDAR such as robustness, reliability, range and 3D resolution in outdoor environments The ecosystem of these IoT markets is not so centralized. In terms of the number of potential buyers, they represent a larger potential market, and their profit margins are more promising than those of the automobile market. '

The following highlights the specific aspects of LiDAR in various markets:

• smart city--Although the use of LiDAR for vehicle traffic and pedestrian safety monitoring has become quite mature in the intelligent transportation system (ITS) market, new opportunities include airport and retail population statistics, flow monitoring and management, and building occupancy detection. The value proposition includes protection for Covid-19, higher security levels, increased efficiency and cost savings, improved user experience, and collection of marketing intelligence data.
  

• security– LiDAR sensors can be deployed in a secure environment for a wide range of applications and use cases, including outdoor/indoor monitoring and public security, border control, intruder detection, access control and perimeter defense. Key infrastructure is LiDAR's largest security market, with data centers, energy production and distribution, water and utilities, nuclear facilities, and oil and gas as the main segments. Other security categories include commercial buildings, warehouses and border control. In many environments, LiDAR will coexist with biometric sensors to provide a full range of security features from early remote detection to face recognition.
  

• Industry——Lidar is currently used in automated material handling solutions in the industrial field, including automated forklifts, pallet stackers, towers and trailers. These automation solutions help address labor shortages and provide the necessary productivity gains. To operate effectively, these automation solutions rely on 2D LiDAR for key functions, including operational security, positioning and navigation. As more and more autonomous robots are deployed in dynamic and outdoor environments, 3D LiDAR is expected to play an important role in sensor fusion, mapping and path planning in field environments such as mines, factories, ports and farmland.
  

• automobile--Lidar has a mature use case in the automotive industry to provide additional perceptual stack redundancy for unsupervised autonomous applications. As a range sensor that can provide useful semantic insight, once human drivers are excluded, LiDAR is very suitable for adding important 'third opinion' to the current camera radar combination. However, these unsupervised autonomous applications will take several years to realize on a large scale, which limits the market potential of LiDAR in the next five years.

'Lidar technology and its supplier ecosystem will continue to develop in two important aspects. First, the transformation from machinery to solid LiDAR sensor technology will drive the lower price level, and eventually reduce it to less than $500, higher manufacturing scalability, and lower maintenance level due to the reduction of tear and wear. Second, by 2030, the LiDAR supplier ecosystem consisting of more than 100 participants will mature and Integrate into 10 to 20 key players, 'concluded Bonte.