Velodyne Lidar no longer exists as a separate company. It merged with Ouster in February 2023, and Ouster now lists Velodyne sensors as “legacy” products it supports. The VLP-32C Ultra Puck was discontinued in 2023, and the VLP-16 Puck family followed in 2024. If you run VLP-16 units, repairs ended on June 30, 2026 and technical support is scheduled to end at the end of 2026, according to Ouster’s distributor Digiflec.
The merger in one paragraph
Velodyne built the spinning lidar that put lidar on the map, from the HDL-64E on early self-driving test cars to the small VLP-16 Puck used on robots and mapping rigs. In 2023 it merged into Ouster, which kept the Ouster name and product line. The remaining Velodyne datasheets and manuals sit on Ouster’s Velodyne downloads page. That page lists three families: VLP-16 (Puck, Puck Lite, Puck Hi-Res), VLP-32 (Ultra Puck) and VLS-128 (Alpha Prime). Older models such as the HDL-32E and HDL-64E aren’t listed there.
Status of each Velodyne sensor (October 2026)
- VLP-32C Ultra Puck: discontinued. Digiflec’s July 2023 notice set a last-time-buy deadline of July 31, 2023. Repairs ended December 24, 2024, and firmware and sensor support ended December 31, 2024.
- VLP-16 Puck, Puck Lite and Puck Hi-Res: discontinued. Digiflec’s September 2024 update says Ouster would repair VLP-16 units until June 30, 2026 and provide technical support until the end of 2026. The repair window has now closed.
- VLS-128 Alpha Prime: still listed on Ouster’s downloads page as a supported legacy sensor. We couldn’t find a public end-of-life notice. Ask Ouster sales directly before planning a purchase.
- HDL-32E, HDL-64E, Velabit, Velarray: not on Ouster’s current Velodyne pages, and we found no current product page for them.
Ouster’s own VLP-16 page still shows the sensor’s specs and says it is supported by Ouster, but it doesn’t say the sensor is for sale. The discontinuation dates above come from Digiflec, an authorized Ouster distributor, rather than an Ouster press release.
VLP-16 specs, for anyone still running one
From Ouster’s VLP-16 page: 16 laser channels, 360° horizontal and 40° vertical field of view, up to 200 m range, ±3 cm accuracy, up to 20 Hz, about 600,000 points per second, 905 nm Class 1 eye-safe laser, and about 590 g without cables. Those numbers still make it a reasonable sensor for indoor robots and slow outdoor platforms. The problem is spares and repairs, not performance.
If you have Velodyne sensors in service
- Download what you need now: save the datasheet, user manual and any firmware for your model from the Ouster downloads page while it’s still hosted.
- Check your support window: VLP-16 owners have technical support only until the end of 2026. After that, plan on self-support or third-party repair.
- Count your spares: if a fleet depends on VLP-16 or Ultra Puck units, the only new-stock source is distributor inventory, which isn’t guaranteed.
- Plan the swap: Digiflec suggests Ouster’s OS1 as the replacement. Expect driver and calibration work, because the data format and beam layout are different.
What to replace a Velodyne with
The direct path is Ouster’s current REV8 range: OS0 for wide short-range coverage, OS1 for general robotics, OS1 Max and OS2 for longer range, and OSDome for ceiling or corner mounting. Our Ouster lidar guide compares range, field of view and how to order. If your robot only needs a flat scan for navigation, a cheaper 2D lidar may be enough; see 2D vs 3D lidar for robots.
Velodyne isn’t the only lidar brand that disappeared in the consolidation. Luminar went through bankruptcy and sold its product lines; here is what happened to Luminar.