Seoul Robotics CEO Han-bin Lee introduces the LiDAR software business used for autonomous driving in an interview with the Korea Economic Daily. Reporter Kim Youngwoo [email protected]
“The winner of the LiDAR market will be an artificial intelligence (AI) company.”
Lida, which detects objects in front through light in three dimensions (3D), is like the’eye’ of an autonomous vehicle. Seoul Robotics, founded in 2017 by CEO Hanbin Lee, is a LiDAR software (SW) company. It has the technology to identify vehicles and objects in front by interpreting the image recognized through the eyes (liida) with AI. In a recent interview with the Korea Economic Daily, CEO Lee said, “While Lida companies focused on lowering production costs, they quickly developed their software technology.” Seoul Robotics, which supplies solutions to Mercedes-Benz and BMW, announced on the 9th that it has formed a partnership with Mando. The goal is to mass-produce lidar within 3 years as early as possible.
‘Love Call’, a finished car/parts company
Representative Lee started targeting overseas markets at the same time as the start-up. It was a time when competitors were rare. He said, “There was a case where Mobili, an Israeli company specializing in self-driving technology, focused only on the technology that recognizes lanes with a camera, and sold the company for 17 trillion won from Intel in 2017. I thought it would create value.”
CEO Lee’s strategy of’choice and concentration’ went well. As the unit price of Lida has decreased, more companies are using it for not only autonomous driving but also advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). The’Love Call’ of companies continued to Seoul Robotics, which started developing SW early. Seoul Robotics has entered nine countries including the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. Offices were established in Silicon Valley, Detroit, USA, and Munich, Germany.
Seoul Robotics is in partnership with most of the world’s lidar manufacturers as well as automakers such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The office is full of lidar products from various companies.
Mando is the first Korean company to which Seoul Robotics has confirmed cooperation. Through this partnership, Seoul Robotics will also participate in Lida mass production. Not only Lida, but also imaging radar production. CEO Lee said, “We will work with Mando to target the global market with domestic parts and solutions.”
Advancing into the smart city business
Seoul Robotics is focusing on developing lightweight and highly efficient solutions. CEO Lee said, “The solutions developed by’full-stack’ autonomous driving companies such as Google (Waymo) for unmanned taxis require high computer processing power, so it is difficult to apply them to personal vehicles. Through differentiation.”
Lida is being used not only in vehicles, but also in various fields such as smart factories and smart cities. Robots in factories recognize objects in front and are used to analyze road conditions in smart cities. For autonomous operation of drones, 3D sensors such as LiDAR are essential. Seoul Robotics plans to enter this market in the future. CEO Lee said, “The developed AI technology can be applied to all processes of analyzing 3D images.”
Recently, more and more manufacturers are engaged in developing lidar software. Representative Lee has confidence in maintaining the skills gap with them. He said, “The DNA itself is different between AI companies and manufacturing companies,” he said. “We will focus on technological advancement and have technology that surpasses Tesla in certain areas.”
Reporter Choi Han-jong [email protected]
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