SHANGHAI, April 17 (Reuters) – Hesai, China’s leading maker of lidar, has developed a version of the technology used in autonomous driving that is capable of detecting colour, making it more accurate and therefore safer, it said on Friday.
The breakthrough fits in with the Chinese auto industry’s shift this year to value-driven innovation and away from cost-cutting, CEO David Li said.
“If the industry focuses solely on pricing, efforts will disproportionately go toward cost-cutting, sacrificing opportunities for better solutions that create greater value,” Li told reporters.
Hesai’s new EXT lidar, powered by its proprietary Picasso chip, is the industry’s first to integrate spatial and colour detection in one device, co-founder Sun Kai said at an event in Shanghai.
Set for mass production later this year, the product will debut in flagship vehicles by 2027, Sun added.
SUPPLIER TO CHINA AND BEYOND
Hesai supplies lidar systems to China’s leading manufacturers of electric cars, including Li Auto, Xiaomi and BYD and captured more than 40% of the market in 2025, according to the Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute.
Outside China, it is a primary lidar supplier for Nvidia’s advanced driver assistance systems that will be used by automakers including Mercedes.
As of 2025, however, lidar was used in only 3% of vehicles worldwide, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, and not every automaker believes it is necessary.
Tesla, for instance, has favoured camera-only systems and Xpeng last year said it would remove lidar from new models in favour of AI-driven technologies.
Sun says there is major growth potential for lidar, which is an acronym for Light Detection And Ranging and uses light to work out where everything is. The inclusion of colour means it can distinguish a red traffic light from a green one.
In addition to vehicle lidar systems, Hesai is targeting a broader market in physical AI with its new wine bottle-shaped handheld device Kosmo, which is designed to collect real-world 3D data for creating “digital twins” of physical spaces.
The device aims to support the development of physical AI systems, including humanoid robots, by giving them a better understanding of real-world environments, Chief Technology Officer Xiang Shaoqing said. Hesai did not give a timeline for Kosmo’s commercial launch.
Its announcement of the new lidar was made ahead of the world’s largest auto show, which begins next week in Beijing, where more than 100 brands are expected to showcase cutting-edge technologies.
(Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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