Company: LIDRW
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001437749-25-004906
Chunk: 10

Company: AEye, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 10
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 multiyear series production programs with OEMs. In the past, we also maintained direct sales channels but expect sales and marketing costs associated with this to be reduced as a result of our revised strategic plan which significantly reduced our workforce and consolidated our global footprint to leverage our Tier 1 partners’ sales channels. Our technical team still remains in direct contact with these OEMs, which better enables us to understand the OEMs’ specific product requirements and facilitate the implementation of our product design into their vehicles.

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In the Non-Automotive market, we anticipate using the same supply chain to manufacture through global contract manufacturers, and we will sell our products primarily through system integrator channel partners that may integrate our lidar sensor and software as part of a larger solution for an end customer. We anticipate that our Automotive product will be well-suited to address the Non-Automotive markets without significant additional modifications. 

We solicit feedback directly from partners and customers in order to identify opportunities to improve our product design. We work with industry analysts, universities, and independent labs to conduct studies and performance tests, which provides third-party validation of our solutions to current and potential customers and partners. We also drive our brand management and increase our public visibility through news releases, advertising campaigns, events, industry panels, and other public relations programs.

Government Regulation

We believe that the U.S. has provided a constructive legal environment to enable the testing and development of autonomous capabilities. We do not expect any federal rules or regulations in the near future that would impact the use or demand for our lidar technology. Some states, such as California and New York, do enforce operational or registration requirements for some autonomous functions. U.S. federal regulations generally allow higher levels of safe and responsible autonomous functionality to be deployed. The European Union, China, and other foreign markets are also developing standards to define the requirements for deploying higher levels of autonomy.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, is the principal legal and regulatory authority that has oversight of vehicles equipped with our sensors as they are deployed on public roadways. The obligations of motor vehicle equipment manufacturers include regular reporting under the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation Act, or TREAD, as well as strict recall and reporting requirements for any defects related to highway safety or any non-compliance with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Similar such reporting and recall requirements exist in foreign markets. As the development of federal, state, and foreign legal frameworks around autonomous vehicles continue to evolve, we may be subject