SAFE LiDAR Act Mandates Five-Year Ban on Foreign-Made Sensor Tech in Critical Infrastructure

The Stopping Adversaries From Exploiting LiDAR Act (SAFE LiDAR Act) is the legislative equivalent of ripping out the foreign-made security cameras from your house and replacing them with domestic ones—except the 'cameras' here are super-advanced sensors called LiDAR, and the 'house' is everything from smart traffic lights to power plants.

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology is what makes self-driving cars see the world, helps robots navigate factories, and secures critical infrastructure. This bill states clearly that certain LiDAR technology coming from designated foreign adversary countries—specifically China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—is a national security risk. The goal is to eliminate that risk by phasing out its use in the U.S.

The Clock Starts Now for Critical Systems

If you work for a water utility, a railway, or a company managing smart city functions (which the bill defines as ‘critical infrastructure operators’), this law hits you hardest. For any foreign adversary LiDAR already installed, you have five years from the law’s enactment to rip it out and replace it (Sec. 3). For any new systems, the prohibition is immediate. This is a massive, mandatory upgrade cycle for essential services, meaning significant capital costs that will likely be passed down to customers through higher utility bills or service fees. Imagine a city that just invested millions in a new traffic system using this tech; they now have five years to find the budget to replace it.

Who Is a ‘Covered Person,’ and Why Should You Care?

This ban isn't just for government entities. The bill introduces the concept of a “covered person,” which is defined broadly as anyone engaging in commerce related to LiDAR, or products that contain or facilitate it, or anyone who routinely uses it in their business (Sec. 7). This could include tech developers, manufacturers, or even large logistics companies using automated warehouses. Three years after the law is enacted, these covered persons cannot enter into any transaction that results in the use of this foreign-made LiDAR in the U.S. If your company relies on cheaper, foreign-made sensors for product development, you need a new supply chain, fast.

The Partnership Problem

Beyond just using the technology, the bill immediately bans U.S. companies from entering into new joint ventures, licensing agreements, or technology partnerships with companies tied to these foreign adversaries if the goal is to develop or manufacture that tech for U.S. use (Sec. 4). If you’re a startup that was planning a co-development deal with a Chinese sensor firm to get a product to market quickly, that door slams shut the day this bill is enacted. There’s even a tough provision: if you signed a partnership agreement 180 days before the law was enacted, the bill presumes you did it to frustrate the law’s purpose, and you’ll have to prove otherwise in court.

The Commerce Secretary’s Big Red Button

Recognizing that forcing companies to rip out essential tech overnight could cause chaos, the bill gives the Secretary of Commerce significant power to grant waivers. These waivers can be granted if the ban would cause “disproportionate hardship” to a U.S. user or if it's in the national interest (Sec. 3). However, these waivers are non-renewable and last only three years. This means the Secretary gets to play gatekeeper, and companies will be lining up, hoping their plea for temporary relief is heard. The Secretary also has the power to define what constitutes 'critical infrastructure' every year, which means regulatory uncertainty for operators who might suddenly find themselves under the five-year mandatory replacement rule.

On the plus side, the bill does create a transition assistance program and an advisory opinion system (Sec. 6). If you’re a developer facing a deadline, you can ask the Commerce Department for an opinion on whether your continued use of the prohibited tech might qualify for a waiver, theoretically giving you a clearer path forward. This shows the bill is trying to manage the economic shock while prioritizing national security, but the bottom line remains: if your business relies on foreign adversary LiDAR, you're on a federally mandated timeline to switch.