Faraday Future Selects Velodyne Solid State Lidar For Production FF91

It’s now been more than four years since Faraday Future revealed its first production-intent vehicle at an enormously overwrought event at CES 2017. During that nearly two-hour show, Faraday executives made lots of big promises about the capabilities of its new electric car including automated driving capabilities. One more unique design elements of the FF91 was a lidar sensor that popped up out of the hood when needed. That particular detail has now been discarded, but the plan is to launch the FF91 with Velodyne’s new Velarray H800 solid state lidar instead. 

During that event, the company showed a video of a prototype navigating itself through the parking lot outside in search of a space. At the time, the goal was to have it in production by the end of 2018 and debuting with a level 2 driver assistance system that provides lane centering and automatic following distance control. Over time, the intent was expand the capabilities to level automated driving that didn’t require supervision from the driver. 

At best we won’t see production versions of the FF91 hit the streets until the second half of 2022 assuming the current plan to public through a SPAC merger is completed and the planned capabilities will be similar although utilizing a different hardware set. Rather than the rotating puck that rose up from the hood, a pair of the Velodyne H800 sensors will be embedded somewhere in the forward portion of the vehicle although precisely where hasn’t yet been revealed yet.

Unlike the classic rotating Velodyne lidar sensors that were first introduced during the DARPA Grand Challenge more than 15 years ago, the Velarray is a smaller solid state device that can be embedded in the body work. Velodyne is still coy about specifics of the proprietary laser beam steering but CEO Anand Gopalan has described it as “MEMS-like.” MEMS lidar sensors use a micro-electro-mechanical-system mirror to guide the laser as it scans the field of view. Numerous companies are developing MEMS lidar sensors for production including Innoviz and Aeye. 

Velodyne is developing several variants of the Velarray sensor for different applications, but the H800 is targeted at providing a 200m detection range across a 120 deg horizontal x 16 deg vertical field of view. It uses an 8-channel edge emitting 905-nm laser, similar to the type used in all of Velodyne’s sensors. Velodyne has been shipping samples to customers since at least mid-2020 and aims to have an automotive certified production version in production by the end of 2021 with a cost target of $500 when it reaches volume production. 

The two sensors on the FF91 will be arranged with some overlap so that they provide at least a 180 degree field of view around the front portion of the car. Over time, Faraday is expected to improve the capability of its system to level 3 which would allow the driver to go hands-off and eyes-off the road under certain conditions, although the driver still needs to be ready to retake control within about 10 seconds if needed. 

Velodyne will be working with a tier 2 supplier partner to manufacture the Velarray sensors and provide them to tier 1 suppliers that integrate them into driver assist and automated driving systems. Faraday Future is the first confirmed automotive production program to be announced for the H800 however, the Ford Otosan truck joint-venture in Turkey has previously announced that it is planning to use the same sensor for driver assist systems on heavy trucks. 

Fully automated vehicles are still likely at least five years away from getting significant commercial adoption, but the technologies spawned by the development effort including more power compute platforms and advanced sensors like lidar and imaging radar are increasingly making their way into vehicles arriving now.