Hesai Technology has announced the completion of its new state-of-the-art R&D center for manufacturing. In addition, the company has also announced a series of high-profile products and business developments to advance intelligent driving systems.

Hesai Group’s lidar products enable a broad spectrum of applications including passenger and commercial vehicles. Particularly, they suit well in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving vehicles. They also complement robotic applications such as last-mile delivery robots and AGVs.

Hesai seamlessly integrates its in-house manufacturing process with lidar R&D and design. Thus, enabling rapid product iteration while ensuring high performance, high quality and affordability. 

Utilize Smart Automation Equipment

Hesai has completed construction on a new 740,000-square-foot state-of-the-art R&D center for manufacturing. Named “Maxwell”, after Scottish physicist James Maxwell’s famous equations. These equations form the foundation of electromagnetism, optics, electric, and magnetic circuits.

Accordingly, the new cutting-edge facility includes the world’s most advanced lidar testing lab. Moreover, it will utilize many smart industrial robots allowing for the automation of over 100 production processes. It will have an automation rate of 90% and a 45-second cycle time per lidar unit.

The new facility uses a proprietary smart cloud manufacturing execution system (MES) capable of precisely tracking the entire production chain and allows for any problem to be traced back to the source, precisely located and promptly controlled.

“Our new Maxwell facility is not a traditional manufacturing facility but an advanced R&D center where we design and build automated lidar production lines, which can then be easily replicated across our global network of manufacturing facilities,” said said David Li, Co-founder and CEO of Hesai. In addition, Li said, “With Hesai’s commercial engine now in full swing, we expect to drive lidar adoption forward for everyone.”

Flagship Products

Hesai also introduced new flagship AT512 ultra long-range ADAS lidar. Particularly, the AT512 is Hesai’s top-of-the-line product represents a leapfrog advancement in lidar innovation.

The AT512 offers an industry-leading range of 300 meters at 10% reflectivity with a maximum range of over 400 meters. Moreover, it has an industry record 12.3 million points per second point-rate, multiples ahead of the ADAS competitors. Thus, resulting in the highest resolution point cloud among any lidar manufacturer at 2400×512.

“Our core belief that intelligent manufacturing needs to be part of our R&D efforts has helped us move beyond traditional 1550 nanometer laser-based lidar to more advanced 905 nanometer technology as borne out by the superior performance, quality and reliability of our AT512,” Li said.

Hesai also announced the new ultra-thin ET25 ADAS lidar designed to be installed behind a vehicle’s windshield. This helps maintain the vehicle’s aerodynamics and keeps the lidar clear of dirt and debris. The ET25 provides powerful performance combined with a revolutionary design that makes vehicle integration easier than ever.

The ET25 provides 250 meters of range at 10% reflectivity and received a 2024 CES Innovation Award for best new product.