Methodology, data caveats & who we are

Methodology

This primer follows Dart Consultants' standard first-principles method: identify the one real structural asymmetry inside the product (§2), derive the value ladder and moat mechanism from it (§4-5), then apply that framework to the listed companies (§9-11). Research was conducted via public sources only — SEC filings (10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, 20-F, 6-K as applicable to each issuer's filer status), company investor-relations pages and press releases, earnings-call transcripts, stockanalysis.com and other market-data aggregators for current price/valuation figures, independent industry research (principally Yole Group's automotive LiDAR market-share reporting), primary regulatory sources (federalregister.gov, nhtsa.gov for FMVSS 127; cnevpost.com and related Chinese trade press for GB 44721-2026), and market-research summaries for the industry-size dispersion in §6, in that order of preference. Company research for the six primary companies (Ouster, Innoviz, Aeva, MicroVision, Hesai, AEye) and for the nine Appendix companies was conducted 22-23 September 2026 by parallel research passes, each instructed explicitly not to estimate or invent any figure not found in a cited source. Company financials and stock data are dated individually throughout each report; all market-data figures are as of 22 September 2026 unless stated otherwise.

Data caveats

• Constructed/indicative figures are labelled as such in every caption where used — specifically the value-ladder price bands (§5), the industrial-vs-automotive qualification step counts (§4), and every company's forward-year revenue estimate used in its own Valuation section (each explicitly labelled "Dart Consultants' own extrapolation," not company guidance, with the underlying arithmetic shown).
• Reported (not indicative) figures used without a qualifier include: the IEC 60825-1 eye-safety power ratio (§1, §3), each company's disclosed revenue/margin/cash figures, Yole Group's market-share data, and the dated facts of every consolidation-wave exit in §9's timeline.
• Derived figures are marked with a tilde (~) or stated as approximate and explained in the source line, including several trailing-twelve-month figures reconstructed from quarterly disclosures where a company does not itself publish a TTM figure.
• Undisclosed figures are shown as a dash or stated as "not disclosed" or "could not verify," never estimated into a table. Several companies in this report (Ouster, Innoviz, Aeva, AEye, MicroVision) do not disclose a PEG ratio or, in several cases, a precisely reconcilable Debt/Equity figure — this report does not manufacture one on their behalf; see each company's own report for the specific gap.
• Market-size and forecast disagreements are shown as ranges rather than resolved to a single number — see §6's automotive LiDAR market-size dispersion chart, where five forecasters' 2026 base estimates cluster tightly but their respective target-year end-points span more than 3.5x.
• We do not model full balance sheets or cash-flow statements beyond what each company itself discloses; company reports use a "selected disclosed metrics" format instead.
• Several company-level data points showed material disagreement between data aggregators for the same company on the same date — most notably Hesai's ordinary-share-count vs. ADS-equivalent-share-count reconciliation, Ouster's and Innoviz's conflicting insider/institutional ownership ranges across sources, and Innoviz's own Debt/Equity ratio (0.73 per one aggregator) appearing inconsistent with the company's own "no debt" balance-sheet characterisation. These are flagged explicitly in the relevant company report rather than silently reconciled.
• One claim received during this report's research required explicit correction before use: this report's original working assumption that Luminar's marquee OEM relationships (Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Polestar) transferred to MicroVision alongside the acquired IP and inventory was checked directly against primary sources and found unsupported — Volvo's contract was terminated before the bankruptcy sale, and the Mercedes-Benz and Polestar relationships never converted to production business. MicroVision's own company report states this plainly rather than assuming brand continuity implies commercial continuity.
• This report's appendix table (following the six company reports) covers other publicly listed LiDAR-relevant companies outside this report's US-exchange-listed scope, per the brief's explicit instruction — pure-play LiDAR companies listed on non-US exchanges, plus diversified companies (some themselves US-listed) for whom LiDAR is a real but non-identity-defining product line. Two corrections to the working candidate list were found and are documented in the Appendix itself: Continental AG's LiDAR-relevant automotive-electronics business was spun off as the independently listed Aumovio SE in September 2025, and FARO Technologies was itself acquired and delisted by AMETEK in July 2025.

About Us

Dart Consultants is a market intelligence and technology service provider. We are not a SEC-registered Investment Adviser or a FINRA-registered Broker-Dealer. This document, and the company reports that follow it, are educational material only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation to buy or sell any stock. BUY/HOLD/SELL labels used in this series are an educational device for summarising publicly available information, not a regulated recommendation. The analyst(s) preparing this report hold no position in, and have no banking, advisory or brokerage relationship with, any company named in it, and have received no compensation from any of them. Readers should treat all six primary companies in this report as carrying above-average risk relative to a typical listed equity, independent of this report's eventual rating on each: this is a young, capital-intensive, still-consolidating industry in which five companies with genuine technology have exited since 2023, and every one of this report's six remaining companies is either loss-making, carries an unresolved near-term listing/liquidity risk, or both. Innoviz specifically carries an unresolved Nasdaq listing-status risk as of this report's research date; AEye carries an unconfirmed going-concern status requiring direct primary-source verification; MicroVision carries an explicit, company-disclosed going-concern warning. These are not this report's opinions — they are the companies' own disclosed facts, restated here for emphasis.