Silicon Valley self-driving truck startup Kodiak Robotics and Shanghai-based lidar maker Hesai Technology announced a partnership on Wednesday to integrate the Chinese lidar into the autonomous trucking system, reported Reuters.
Laser-based lidar sensors help self-driving cars detect objects ahead and around the vehicle and are a key component to many self-driving systems.
Kodiak will use a Hesai lidar on each side of the truck and will also keep one forward-facing Luminar lidar, said Don Burnette, Kodiak’s CEO, who was a co-founder of self-driving truck startup Otto and before that an early engineer working on Google’s self-driving car program.
“I think it is a distinct advantage for Kodiak to have started in a time where we had access to a rich and mature ecosystem of services and suppliers,” Burnette said.