[4] Velodyne Lidar ships sensors to mobility industry customers for testing and commercial use in autonomous vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems, mapping, robotics, infrastructure and smart city applications.

[11] The experience led them to realize shortcomings both in camera-centric approaches and in existing lidar technology, which only scanned a single, fixed line of sight.

[12] Velodyne donated one of its early prototype sensors to the Robotics Collection at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in 2011.

[19] The same year, Velodyne also provided their sensors as a sponsor of the SAE GM AutoDrive Challenge, a three-year competition in which eight university teams develop an automated vehicle.

[34] In November 2021, Gopalan was replaced as CEO with Theodore Tewksbury, a former chief executive at a low-power AI vision systems company, Eta Compute.

[36] In November 2022, Ouster and Velodyne agreed to merge in an all-share transaction in which the combined business will be split evenly between the two companies' existing shareholders.

[5][40] When in use on a moving vehicle, a Velodyne sensor can create a precise image of the road ahead, including detailed street signs and foliage.

[42] The range, resolution, and directional field of view of the Velarray enable improved object detection and longer braking distances than the company's prior 360° products.

[48] The company also introduced Vella software for integration of the Velarray into ADAS applications, supporting features such as lane keeping assist, automatic emergency braking, and adaptive cruise control.

[53] In 2010, Google (now Alphabet) began testing self-driving cars on the streets in the San Francisco Bay Area using Velodyne's Lidar technology.

In 2016, Ford Motor Company announced that it will expand its fleet of self-driving R&D vehicles and use Velodyne Lidar's Ultra Puck sensors.

[69] In 2018, the company partnered with Embark,[70] Geodetics,[71] Voyage,[citation needed] Exyn Technologies,[72] Yellowscan,[73] Phoenix Lidar,[74] NAVYA,[75] ThorDrive[76] and Postmates.