Hesai Technology's LiDAR was found to have a "leap year bug", and the company said it would solve the problem within 24 hours

It is reported that because Hesai Technology's firmware did not handle the leap year properly, the autonomous driving functions of all cars using the company's lidar were unable to be used yesterday.

According to the source, Hesai Technology did not handle the Unix timestamp properly. The data sent out was not a Unix timestamp, but in the form of xx/xx/xx/xxxx.

Some insiders of some automakers confirmed the problem. Hesai Technology has responded to the news, saying that two old L4 mechanical LiDARs did have software bugs today due to the leap year. The company said that the cause of the problem has been found, and it has communicated with the relevant customers and provided them with a solution.

Hesai Technology said it expects the problem to be completely resolved within the next 24 hours, adding that the issue does not affect the AT128 lidar, OEM customers, or any passenger vehicles equipped with AT128 on the road.

According to the official website of Hesai Technology, AT128 is an automotive-grade ultra-high-definition long-range LiDAR launched for the ADAS pre-installed mass production market. It has an ultra-long range of 200 meters and an ultra-high frequency of 1.53 million points per second, which can capture rich and complete object details. Compared with other long-range LiDARs, AT128 has a global resolution of 1200 x 128 and has the industry-leading perception imaging level. By the end of 2023, the cumulative delivery volume of Hesai LiDAR has exceeded 300,000 units.

As a major domestic lidar supplier, Hesai Technology recently held a strategic cooperation meeting with Great Wall Motors in Baoding. In the future, Hesai Technology and Great Wall Motors will carry out more comprehensive and in-depth cooperation in the field of intelligent driving.

The two parties reached a consensus on the mass production cooperation of high-performance LiDARs, and upgraded the technical cooperation based on the existing AT128 LiDARs. Many new passenger car models under Great Wall Motors will be equipped with Hesai's ADAS LiDARs, which are expected to be launched this year.

Today’s revelation that the timestamp was not properly processed will inevitably have a negative impact on Hesai Technology. If this bug cannot be properly handled and the subsequent impact cannot be managed, Hesai’s customer trust and sales work will face challenges. If the bug causes losses to customers, the company may even face legal risks.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.