Many companies are making big promises without the follow through. Bringing a LiDAR to market not only requires exceptional technology but also perseverance, a clear vision, and the capability to bring the technology to market. Here are five crucial organizational characteristics to look for when investing in a LiDAR company.

1. A collaborative culture

Technology aside, you want to ensure that you are also partnering with or investing in a LiDAR company that is eager to work with you and its counterparts in an open, transparent, and collaborative way. At Baraja, we enjoy working on challenging problems. By taking a collaborative approach, we gain a complete picture of the issues our automotive partners are facing, which helps us improve our design to meet their evolving needs and integrate our technology into their systems sooner.

Our partnerships with Veoneer, Hitachi Construction Machinery and Tier IV are helping bring autonomous driving to large-scale commercialization by offering and integrating scalable automotive-grade LiDAR sensors in future vehicles. These relationships have and will continue to lead to technological improvements and accelerated commercialization for all parties.

2. The focus is on the tech

Many LiDAR start-ups make the common mistake of trying to do it all. They not only want to develop the technology but also manufacture it and provide the perception software to interpret the mapping system. While this may seem like a smart business decision, it often comes with a reduction in quality and capability of the LiDAR system due to split focus within the team.

At Baraja, we are laser-focused on one thing only: developing the best automotive LiDAR sensor solution in the market. We aren’t trying to do it all. Instead, we lean on the expertise of our partners, such as Veoneer, one of our Tier-1 supplier partners, to help us manufacture and integrate our product into the vehicle, and Tier IV, a perception software company we’re collaborating with to develop a new software-defined sensor suite combining best-in-class LiDAR and HDR cameras.

3. Long-term strategic plans

Strategic vision is an important quality in selecting a winning LiDAR company. In addition to coming to the table with exceptional technology, a LiDAR company needs to have an achievable roadmap including the technology and commercial milestones that will enable the company to scale and reach profitability. Before investing in a LiDAR solution, it’s important to inquire about their long-term strategy plan, what obstacles they predict and how they are proactively solving them.

At Baraja, we have worked our way backward through the process, clearly defining each step from developing the technology to bringing it to market.

4. Transparency

At Baraja, we have a one-of-a-kind, patented approach to LiDAR and love to showcase how our unique technology works. We also openly discuss what’s next, sharing with investors and partners where we are today and where we plan to be tomorrow. While we have achieved some significant milestones, we’re aware of the challenges the industry faces and how our LiDAR product needs to address them.

5. People who make it happen

A company is only as strong as its people. Looking over a company’s leadership team and even chatting with those on the front line can say a lot about where the company is heading. Is the team well-rounded? Do you have talented engineers as well as visionaries, financial experts, and strategic mindsets? There is much more to a tech company than its product, and companies that are able to secure the robust talent, from the Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Technology Officer, who set the company strategy, to the Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Financial Officer in charge of setting the execution, end up delivering better products to their customers and create value for their stakeholders.

Our Baraja team is filled with the industry’s top talent, from Australia to Detroit to Silicon Valley, who are led by well-established and well-known industry leaders excited to help bring autonomy to market.

Join the Baraja movement

Are you curious how Baraja does it better? Join us in our mission to bring autonomous driving to the streets. Contact our sales team today to request more information and set up a demo of our technology. We’ll walk you through exactly what makes us different and how we plan to enable the future of autonomy together.