Velodyne Unveils Monster Lidar With 128 Laser Beams

Velodyne re-asserted its dominance of the lidar market today by announcing a product with 128 laser beams, twice as many as its previous top-of-the-line model. "The VLS-128 is the best LiDAR sensor on the planet, delivering the most advanced real-time 3D vision for safe driving," Mike Jellen, the president of Velodyne LiDAR, said in a statement. The announcement, which had been widely anticipated, leaves out the one detail that everyone most wants to know: the price. The company's previous top-of-the-line product originally sold for more than US $70,000. Today, though, a host of rival companies are on the scene, some of them promising solid-state products that cost less because they have no moving parts.