Name: Lidar Is Latest Tech in the Middle of U.S.-China Tensions
Uploaded: 2023-11-02T22:00:00Z
Duration: 6 min 23 s
Description: National security officials in the U.S. are raising concerns about a Chinese company that’s a key maker of laser sensor technology. WSJ reporter Heather Somerville joins host Zoe Thomas to explain how Hesai found itself and its tech at the center of geopolitical tensions. Clara Mokri For The Wall Street Journal

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National security officials in the U.S. are raising concerns about a Chinese company that’s a key maker of laser sensor technology. WSJ reporter Heather Somerville joins host Zoe Thomas to explain how Hesai found itself and its tech at the center of geopolitical tensions. Clara Mokri For The Wall Street Journal

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Lidar Is Latest Tech in the Middle of U.S.-China Tensions

Zoe: Welcome to "Tech News Briefing." It's Thursday, November 2nd. I'm Zoe Thomas for "The Wall Street Journal." Hesai Group is a Shanghai-based maker of laser sensors used for next-generation vehicles. In February, it began selling shares in the US and was heralded by some as a comeback for Chinese listings, but less than nine months later, Hesai's stock is down 50% and has become an example of what can happen to companies caught in the battle between the US and China over developing advanced technology. Our reporter, Heather Somerville, has been following this story. So Heather, can you tell us more about what Hesai makes?

Heather: Hesai makes lidar. Lidar is a laser-based sensor that uses light pulses to basically see the world. And what this looks like is a small piece of equipment that's attached to a vehicle, for instance, a car or a truck, and it enables that vehicle to detect the environment around it and thus, navigate it autonomously. Hesai is grown to be one of the most dominant players in this field. It has, for instance, about half of the entire market for cars that use lidar.

Zoe: What are governments concerned about when it comes to this kind of tech and its future?

Heather: The National security implications are that LIDAR is critical for autonomous systems. So this could mean anything from a robotaxi to a drone that can fly autonomously in the battlefield to a whole host of other things that the US Military wants and needs in modern combat. And in addition, there's concerns about lidar being used by China to spy and to gather data on Americans or sensitive American infrastructure. Now to be clear, Hesai denies all of these allegations, says technically, it's lidar cannot be used for spying. It's not even attached to the internet. But these concerns have been the focus of many conversations among members of Congress and their staff in recent months.

Zoe: And they seem to be a concern of investors. I mean, how are they reacting to seeing the US Government raise issues about national security around Hesai?

Heather: Hesai is certainly on the defensive right now publicly and with its investors. We should say, other lidar companies that are headquartered in the US also have had their stock prices fall. And there's a lot of reasons for this, but in Hesai's case, it's been accused of patent theft by multiple companies in the US. It is struggling to grow its revenue in places like the United States and part of Europe, and a lot of this comes down to the uncertainty around its future as a Chinese company, building critical technology that a heck of a lot of US companies are using.

Zoe: Did Hesai bring anything up about being a Chinese company when it started selling shares in the US?

Heather: Yes, so per SEC rules, Chinese companies have to give investors some sort of warning about potential interference by the Chinese government, and so Hesai did that. It has a very explicit language in its filing that it made with the SEC prior to going public in the US about the business could be interfered with by the Chinese government, and this, of course, is true for, I think many would say, most or all Chinese companies. And now we ought to say that Hesai says the Chinese government has not interfered with its management or business decisions.

Zoe: It seems like a number of these risks are coming from what the US government might do or steps that it might take that affect Hesai. Are there any concerns about what China might do that could impact the company?

Heather: Yeah, so recently, China came out with an updated list of potential export restrictions. So these are not final rules. This was a draft and on that list was lidar. It is a signal that China, like the US, recognizes the commercial and military importance of this technology.

Zoe: How is Hesai reacting to being caught in the middle of this geopolitical tension?

Heather: The company told us that they consider this little more than the result of their competitors in the US not being able to hack it and resorting to xenophobic fear-mongering and taking advantage of the US-China tensions to initiate Hesai's demise.

Zoe: Are we seeing other companies caught up in this tension?

Heather: Yeah, one of the most interesting fallouts of this particular tension are the autonomous vehicle companies in the US, self-driving trucking and self-driving robotaxi companies. The vast majority of them do use Hesai lidar. I talked to these executives, these founders and CEOs, and they say, "Listen, Hesai is the best on the market for certain types of safety features and other technical features that they need on their self-driving vehicles." And Hesai produces these lidar in huge volume, thanks to its manufacturing capacity in China. And the price is often more reasonable than other options. And so they don't necessarily want to rely on a Chinese product to build their autonomous trucks and their autonomous cars, but they see few other domestic options. and they blame that largely on a lack of US investment in lidar, which by the way, the US invented initially decades ago.

Zoe: All right, that was our reporter, Heather Somerville. And that's it for "Tech News Briefing." Today's show was produced by Julie Chang with supervising producer Melanie Roy. I'm Zoe Thomas for "The Wall Street Journal." We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks for listening.

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