January 7, 2026 - Lidar Goes Behind the Windshield

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for  January 7, 2026, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry.  

While there are a lot fewer automakers officially participating in CES 2026 than in the past decade, that doesn't mean there isn't still an auto industry presence, especially when it comes to sensors. There are multiple lidar vendors showing off their wares in Las Vegas this week, including Hesai, Innoviz, and Microvision. Hesai is by far one of the two largest global suppliers of lidar, having delivered more than 2 million automotive lidars to date, most in the last two years and the vast majority in its home market of China. For anyone who has been watching the Chinese market in recent years, an increasing number of new vehicles have a hump on the roof just above the windshield that houses a lidar sensor. In 2025, 3 million or almost one in eight new vehicles were delivered with lidar.  

However, while the position at the top of the vehicle is ideal for performance, it doesn't look great to have a lump there, and it interrupts aerodynamics. One of the goals of the industry has been to move the lidar behind the windshield, where it gets more protection and can be within the swept area of the windshield wipers. The challenge has been packaging and noise. The location ahead of the rearview mirror is typically already occupied by the camera and lidars; until now, they have required a fan to dissipate heat. Prior to cancelling its planned Ultra Cruise system in 2023, GM planned to use a behind-the-windshield lidar, but it was too noisy. The latest Hesai ATX and InnovizThree sensors have been reduced in size and power consumption so that they can be mounted behind the glass. In addition, Innoviz showed an updated version of the InnovizThree at CES that has an integrated camera in the housing to simplify packaging in the vehicle. 

Since the lidar lasers operate in the infrared spectrum, the area of the windshield where the sensor is mounted must have a gap in the infrared and ultraviolet coatings so the sensor can work.  

Hesai is also currently building a manufacturing plant in Thailand, which is expected to come online later in 2026 to supply sensors to non-Chinese companies and avoid the tariffs on Chinese products. Israel-based Innoviz is also expanding its manufacturing footprint to support new programs in the coming years. As new hands-off, eyes-off driving automation becomes more common in the next five years, demand for lidar is expected to grow significantly, and most of these won't be as visible from outside the vehicle. 

Thanks for listening.