Shares of Velodyne Lidar (NASDAQ:VLDR) were trading higher on Tuesday, after the company's smallest sensor won an award from Silicon Valley's nonprofit robotics trade group and a Wall Street analyst initiated coverage of the company with a bullish note. As of 12:30 p.m. EST, Velodyne's shares were up about 14.4% from Monday's closing price. So what In a new note on Tuesday, Needham analyst Rajvindra Gill initiated coverage of Velodyne with a buy rating and a price target of $30. Gill thinks that Velodyne has a "clear first mover advantage" in the lidar-sensor category, which he sees as a "critical technology" for (among other things) advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS) and self-driving vehicles.