Velodyne Releases New, Cheaper Lidar Option

By Danielle Lucey



Velodyne’s lidar division has released a new product to its lineup — the Velodyne Lidar Puck, or VLP-16 — which is available for order at $7,999. 



The company says this price point is “significantly less expensive than previous generation sensors.”



The instrument captures 16 channels of lidar data in real time, enabling users to get a 3-D map of their environment for applications like environmental perception and self-driving cars. 



“Velodyne’s Lidar Puck has the potential to be truly transformational, an enabling technology for a vast array of price-sensitive applications,” says David Hall, Velodyne founder and CEO. “There’s no longer any need to go through the hassle of combining several 2-D sensors or mount one 2-D sensor on a nodding platform now that one 3-D sensor can do the job conveniently and at an even lower price point than multiple 2-D sensors.”



The sensor is the smallest in the company’s lineup, which also includes 32- and 64-channel lidar options. 



Any VLP-16s ordered now will ship by the end of the calendar year, according to a company press release.