In one embodiment, a sensor unit to be utilized in an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV) includes a sensor interface coupled to a number of sensors mounted on a number of locations of an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV). The sensor unit includes a host interface to be coupled to a host system, where the host system is configured to perceive a driving environment surrounding the ADV based on sensor data obtained from the sensors and to plan a path to autonomously drive the ADV. The sensor unit includes a time synchronization hub device coupled to the sensor interface. The time synchronization hub device includes one or more TX and/or RX timestamp generators coupled to a time source, where the TX/RX timestamp generators generate TX/RX timestamps based on a time obtained from the time source to provide the TX/RX timestamps to one or more of the sensors.