Sumit Sharma Annual Shareholder Meeting Comments

Sumit Sharma Annual Shareholder Meeting Comments 

CEO Presentation Sumit Sharma: Thank you, Brian. 

First, I want to thank our shareholders for attending today and for your continued support of MicroVision. 

Second, I will be making some forward-looking statements during our discussion about the Company, and our actual results may differ from the predictions and statements that we make today. Information regarding some of the factors that could cause such differences are included in our SEC filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. 

It has been a remarkable journey since our last Annual Shareholder Meeting. I am proud of the progress we have made and believe our continuing efforts will build value for our shareholders. About 3 weeks ago, we provided an update on the completion of MicroVision’s A-Sample hardware, noting its key features, performance, and scalability and what the Company is doing to support an A-Sample evaluation process. 

The completion of A-Sample hardware of our long-range lidar sensor on schedule was a major accomplishment. Passing this milestone provides an opportunity for potential customers and strategic partners to begin meaningful engagement on evaluation of our technology and capabilities. 

As I discussed last month, our long range lidar sensor is designed to meet or exceed expected OEM performance and cost requirements. We believe our sensor could offer a much higher level of performance compared to other lidar sensors currently available or announced in the market. 

Here are a few of the crucial data points that we believe sets our lidar technology apart and creates interest: 

At 250 meters our sensor is expected to address real-world highway driving conditions. With 10.8 million points per second, our sensor provides the highest resolution and an accurate measurement of driving space at the OEM preferred 30 hz of latency. The resolution of our sensor is, of course, not the maximum resolution we can achieve. Based on OEM needs, this hardware can support resolutions greater than 20 million points per second if needed. 

Built on our proprietary active scan locking technology, our sensor is immune to interference from sunlight and other lidars. This provides a significant advantage compared to lidar technology based on flash and staring receive systems that are unable to meet this requirement. Additionally, having a detailed understanding of the velocity of moving objects in real-time enables fast and accurate path planning and maneuvering of the vehicle. I believe our sensor has a major competitive advantage with this groundbreaking feature delivered at 30 hz which is preferred by OEMs which no sensor on the market can deliver. 

With our technology, we also believe we have an advantage over sensors built with 1550 nm lasers. Lidars built on this technology do not have the cost and scalability advantage because they currently require expensive sensors, lasers and beam steering technologies. 

Another competitive advantage comes from being able to scale our cost-effective, solid-state beam steering system for automotive use. As I mentioned in April, we launched our fifth-generation MEMS to a 200-millimeter wafer size with our MEMS fab partner. By using our proven technologies and components, rather than those that are exotic and require significant investments from our competitors. All this is built upon the high reliability of our technology that has allowed our April 2017 partner to address consumer, commercial and military markets with our technology. 

I am pleased to report that our pilot line in Redmond Washington is operational and our automated production line with our Asian manufacturing partner is expected to be online in time to support initial sales in late Q3 or Q4 of this year. 

Let me shift gears for a moment and discuss the testing and evaluation process and timing. It was crucial to complete the A-Sample in the timeframe we have been marching to since last October. Hardware availability makes internal validation possible as well as allows engagement on external validation. External validations on automotive sensors are done at closed track test sites all over the world that were built to provide calibrated data to automotive OEMs, Tier 1s and other companies in this space. 

Before I answer questions, let me re-iterate that I believe our primary path to creating value for our shareholders is in the automotive lidar market. However, we stand ready to support inquiries into our other verticals. 

Now let me answer a few of the questions submitted by investors. 

While we will try to address your questions, we are limited by public disclosure laws, including Regulation FD, from providing material non-public information – examples of which include affirming financial guidance or providing updates on existing material contracts, potential new contracts, or potential strategic options. 

The first question is “Competitors are claiming commitments from vehicle manufacturers, are we too late?” 

The short answer is no. We expect interested parties will recognize the competitive advantages I discussed today as they review benchmark data we provide, and as they go through their own evaluation of our A-Sample. 

The next question is “What are you doing to improve your marketing efforts and making customers and others aware of your capabilities?” 

We expect to be launching a new website in the near future. I am also pleased that we have added a marketing manager to assist with a number of marketing activities that were sidelined as we focused our resources on the completion of the A-Sample. 

The next question is “What is the status of your other non-automotive lidar verticals? Are you actively pursuing customers for consumer lidar, interactive display, AR/VR?” 

We believe each of these verticals represent significant value to the right party. Our primary focus, however, remains on what we believe to be a much larger and more profitable market opportunity where we have key competitive advantages. With that said, if the right opportunity arises, we are prepared to address it. 

The final question is “Do you have sufficient cash to compete with other more well capitalized competitors?” 

As I mentioned on our Q1 earnings call, we ended the first quarter with $75.3 million in cash and cash equivalents. We believe that our balance sheet provides us with a sufficient runway to execute our plans, and very importantly, we believe, the R&D expense to commercialize products could be significantly lower than other firms as we believe our A-Sample is further along than the competition. We think our competitors still need to solve a number of technical challenges that we have already solved. 

Concluding Remarks 

Sumit Sharma: Finally, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the Shareholders who attended today and thank you all for your continued support of MicroVision.