Specialist
Former director at Velodyne Lidar Inc
Agenda
- Trends and developments in the lidar industry with a focus on Velodyne Lidar and its automotive and non-automotive end markets
- Competitive innovation in products and technology, as well as demand outlook relating to lidar systems
- Profitability amid material supply concerns, including parts sourcing for lenses and sensors
- Medium-to-long-term outlook, including consolidation scenarios and Velodyne leadership
Questions
1.
What 2-3 key trends or developments have you been following in the lidar industry?
2.
How has the industry performed through the pandemic? Do you expect any longer-lasting or permanent impacts arising from the pandemic?
3.
Could you break down Velodyne Lidar’s end markets, starting with automotive and then moving towards non-automotive, including robotics, UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], smart cities and security? How might those opportunities evolve?
4.
Are there any barriers to greater lidar adoption in perimeter security applications? How soon might some of these challenges be solved?
5.
What are the existing conceptual issues for lidar technology? In what environments does lidar still struggle to generate good object-mapping?
6.
Over what timeline could the necessary software be implemented and how expensive might that development be?
7.
Does the software eliminate the need for the object-mapping range we noted, or will that be necessary either way?
8.
Could you break down the competitive landscape and where Velodyne Lidar fits into the stack?
9.
Is the industry moving towards in-housing? Intel has expressed an interest in making its own lidar solutions through Mobileye, whereas Waymo and Argo have shown their own in-house lidar solutions. Who will remain a Velodyne customer?
10.
Why can’t lidar companies such as Velodyne provide what Waymo and Argo need? Why do these potential primary automotive customers feel there isn’t somebody they can outsource to?
11.
You split out lidar vs cameras and suggested they need to work complementarily to each other, while having separate roles. Are there attempts of just counting solely on cameras in the industry? How are players approaching the sensor stack?
12.
Could you frame any changes in the competitive environment? There are some indications of consolidation, but as Velodyne focuses on customer engagement and quality, are any customers potentially returning after working with other platforms?
13.
How would you grade Velodyne’s product portfolio? You outlined a few different Pucks earlier. What is your performance outlook across the various pieces?
14.
Can you elaborate on the margin differential across Velodyne’s portfolio? Which products are higher- vs lower-margin?
15.
What is your 1-year and 3-5-year outlook on Velodyne’s pricing? What pricing is it targeting?
16.
To confirm, is there an annual price reduction included in the longer-term agreements?
17.
How would you describe the pace of innovation and design cycle times with Velodyne’s customers? How might that differ across automotive and non-automotive end markets?
18.
What are your expectations for component availability during the first wave of mass commercialisation, given the continued and ongoing supply chain disruptions? How confident are you in Velodyne ramping production?
19.
You said you expect 10 or so players as the industry consolidates. Do you expect Velodyne to be one of those 10 and if so, are there any obvious or attractive targets for it to consider bringing into the fold? Alternatively, who might want to pick up Velodyne?
20.
What are your thoughts on Velodyne’s management team and its ability to execute on strategy?
21.
Could you summarise a best- and worst-case scenario for Velodyne over the next 12-18 months?
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