r/OUST

“Head coach Kyle Shanahan was injured in an accident on July 14 when his car veered onto oncoming traffic and hit another car head-on. Shanahan was adamant that he was the one at fault, not the other driver”

It will be interesting to see what the actual causes of the crash were.. whether a LiDAR could have prevented the autopilot from steering into oncoming traffic would be interesting. I wonder when Elon will ever accept defeat in saying that only cameras are needed for self driving autonomous cars.

“The United States must have an independent and resilient robotics supply chain”,

“Robots are often equipped with high-fidelity sensors, including
Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), tactile, acoustic, and thermal sensors that collect and
maintain sensitive data on their surroundings. Advanced robotic devices are inherently
networked systems which creates broad attack surfaces and leaves them vulnerable to data
exfiltration”

“In addition to securing critical infrastructure, advanced robotic devices also have applications in industrial manufacturing, from material handling to order fulfilment.5 Integrating these
technologies into American manufacturing will lower production costs, increase output, and
support America’s reindustrialization.”

What this means for Ouster is pretty simple… The US government is taking LiDAR seriously as a potential national security risk in all industries, NOT JUST MILITARY. It is in my opinion looking likely that foreign LiDAR could be banned in almost all solutions, vehicles, supply chains (manufacturing & transport) as well as general robotics, humanoids, drones. This would include Hesai, and Robosense, the only real competition for Ouster who actually have sales. Ouster has more revenue than all other Western LiDAR companies combined.

Kinda disappointing to not know where revenue is coming from (Industrial, auto, traffic management, etc) or how much is insulated from China with the new government restrictions. Makes valuation almost impossible imo as you can’t easily track competition or end market size and have to rely on standard lidar TAM and growth metrics from broad industry reports. Is your thesis just trusting management? I get not wanting to give competition an edge but it does make it hard for retail investors. I mean half of AR is from one customer.