As the markets for autonomous vehicles and mobile robots take shape, many companies are seeking to provide vision systems for those machines. They include makers of lidar sensors, including several newly public companies. But lidar stocks have been poor performers this year.
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At least six lidar stocks are trading on the stock market today. They include Aeva Technologies (AEVA), AEye (LIDR), Innoviz Technologies (INVZ), Luminar Technologies (LAZR), Ouster (OUST) and Velodyne Lidar (VLDR).
Lidar stocks are mostly focused on the emerging market for self-driving cars and trucks. But some also offer gear for industrial and mobile robots.
As a group, these lidar stocks have IBD Relative Strength Ratings that put them in the bottom 20% for performance over the past 12 months. That’s likely because they are unprofitable, development-stage companies.
Tech Tryouts At DARPA Challenge
Several of the companies are represented in this week’s DARPA Subterranean Challenge, known as SubT. Teams are using mostly Ouster and Velodyne lidar sensors on their robots.
Lidar is an acronym for “light detection and ranging.” The technology uses eye-safe laser beams to create a 3D representation of the surveyed environment. Some call lidar “laser scanning” or “3D scanning.”
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is sponsoring the SubT robotics competition. DARPA wants to spur the development of mobile robots that can be used in everything from military operations to search-and-rescue missions after disasters, such as the Surfside condominium collapse on June 24 in Surfside, Fla.
The four-day SubT event concludes on Friday.
Lidar Stocks Focusing On Transportation Markets
Most publicly traded lidar companies focus on providing sensors for the automotive market. That ranges from advanced driver-assistance systems up to fully autonomous self-driving cars and trucks.
“Lidar companies are optimistic relative to adoption on consumer vehicles but are keeping estimates for order books conservative and based on low volume and adoption expectations,” JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee said in a recent report on lidar stocks.
The automotive market is in the research-and-development stage of using lidar, he said. Industrial uses, such as warehouse automation and smart city applications, are further along in adoption, but it’s still early days, he said.
Lidar companies differ in their approaches to the technology. For instance, some have systems optimized for long-range scanning while others are better at short-range scanning.
Which lidar technologies end up winning commercial adoption will signal which lidar stocks could be successful.
Some companies, including Intel (INTC) and Waymo, a unit of Alphabet‘s (GOOGL) Google, have exited the market for selling lidar sensors amid the heightened competition.
Follow Patrick Seitz on Twitter at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
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