With the exception of one automaker (the head of Tesla has objections to this), most companies generally agree that lidar is a vital piece of equipment needed to provide a certain level of autonomy in a car.
Nevertheless, with such demand, any company that wants its product to be used by the entire industry must go into production on a large scale. To achieve such scale, one of the leading lidar manufacturers Velodyne turned to Nikon, a company with extensive experience in the design and manufacture of lenses, for help.
On Thursday, Velodyne announced that it has signed an agreement with Nikon, under which the camera maker will produce lidar sensors for it. The start of mass production is scheduled for the second half of 2019.
Source: 3dnews.ru