Velodyne Shares Drop As Waymo Moves Out Of Lidar Selling Business
- Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) owned self-driving company, Waymo, confirmed ending the sale of custom sensors to third parties after two years of operation, Reuters reports.
- Waymo will now focus on deploying its Waymo Driver tech across its Waymo One ride-hailing and Waymo Via trucking divisions. It will also continue to build its lidars in-house. The financial impact of the decision remains unknown.
- Waymo is reportedly considering both internal technology and external suppliers for its next-generation lidars.
- The decision coincides with the CEO and six critical executive overhaul, which raised questions over the restructuring of the company's strategy.
- Waymo first began manufacturing its lidar sensors in early 2017 as the move aimed to lower the unit price from $75,000 for an off-the-shelf lidar sensor to just $7,500, the Verge reports.
- In 2019, Waymo announced its plans to sell its lidar to customers that won't compete with its robot taxi business.
- Alphabet had spent over $3.5 billion on Waymo as of 2020. Those costs are likely to rise as the company seeks to ramp up its autonomous taxi and delivery services.
- Price Action: VLDR shares traded lower by 6.07% at $6.81 on the last check Friday.
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