Why China's robotic mowers could decide the LiDAR race

The article highlights how robotic lawn mowers are accelerating the development of LiDAR technology more rapidly and effectively than the automotive sector. Unlike the bulky and expensive LiDAR systems initially designed for luxury vehicles, robotic mowers demand smaller, cheaper, and more reliable sensors suitable for mass-market consumer products. This pressure has driven Chinese companies like Hesai and RoboSense to innovate, pushing LiDAR from mechanical and analog designs toward sleek, digital solid-state versions. The consumer robotics market, particularly robotic mowers, is thus emerging as the critical battleground for LiDAR democratization and technological breakthroughs. Robotic mowers represent a fast-growing global market, expanding from $1.5 billion in 2021 to an expected $4.04 billion by 2028. Early mower navigation relied on boundary-wire systems, which were cumbersome and prone to failure. More recent boundary-free approaches use technologies such as pure vision, ultra-wideband (UWB), and real-time kinematics (RTK), each with strengths and