Major lidar market share is up for grabs. A few startups are emerging as likely winners

For investors in lidar startups, this has been a long time coming.

After years of talk — and a SPAC boom in the sensor sector — automakers have finally started incorporating lidar units into their vehicles. And many more lidar-equipped models are expected over the next few years.

Lidar, short for light detection and ranging, is a sensor technology that uses invisible lasers to create a detailed 3-D map of the sensor’s surroundings. Lidar sensors are considered important components of nearly all autonomous-vehicle systems currently under development. They’re also finding increasing applications with advanced driver-assist systems as well as many other areas of robotics.

Playing into investors’ intense interest in self-driving technology, many lidar startups went public via mergers with special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, over the last few years. Valuations for those companies have since fallen sharply, but a few — namely Innoviz, Luminar and Ouster — could finally be poised for major growth, and soon, as automakers rush to adopt more advanced hands-free driving systems.

While the big money is still a few years away, a few of those startups are already separating themselves from the pack with growing order books, fast-evolving technology, and revenue — right now, or soon — in the tens of millions of dollars.

Israel-based Innoviz, which went public via a SPAC merger in late 2020, will soon see its units on the road: A hands-free highway-driving package on BMW’s new 7 Series, set to launch in Germany by the end of the year and elsewhere in 2024, will include an Innoviz lidar sensor nestled in the big sedan’s front grille.

That sensor, together with software that Innoviz developed for BMW, gives the vehicle’s computer brain a constant look at what’s in front of the car, out to about 250 meters.

Innoviz CEO…