How a billion-dollar autonomous vehicle startup lost its way

An example of 3D LiDAR mapping from Quanergy’s website. Source: quanergy.com

Quanergy Systems Inc found itself in the centre of a sudden frenzy over self-driving cars in 2014. 

It makes lidar, which bounces lasers off objects to help autonomous cars know what’s nearby. That September, the fledgling company announced a partnership with Mercedes-Benz that would put its devices on cars the automaker was using to test autonomous driving features.