Milestones
1983 - Velodyne Acoustics formed when David Hall patents servo control for loudspeakers.
1995 - David Hall patents Class D 97% efficient amplifier. Velodyne subwoofers are recognized
worldwide as best-in-class.
2000 - 2001 - Dave and Bruce Hall participate in BattleBots, Robotica, and Robot Wars competitions.
March 13, 2004 - Team Digital Auto Drive (DAD) competes in the first DARPA Grand Challenge using stereo-vision
technology. The vehicle survives 6.0 miles, finishing third.
October 8, 2005 - Team DAD enters the second Grand Challenge using 64-element LIDAR technology. A steering
control board failure ends their race at 25 miles, finishing 11th of all finishers. Five vehicles complete the
race, with Stanford Racing team winning the event.
Summer, 2006 - Velodyne offers a more compact version of its 64 element LIDAR scanner - the HDL-64E - for
sale. Top Grand Challenge teams immediately place orders. Team DAD declines to enter the next DARPA Urban
Challenge event, focusing instead on supplying LIDAR scanners to all top teams.
November, 2007 - The HDL-64E was used by five out of six of the finishing teams at the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, including the winning and second place teams.
Present - Velodyne has made sales to parties involved in mapping, surveying, defense, agricultural, ground truth, and other applications.