Daimler Trucks AG and Luminar Technologies, Inc., an automotive lidar hardware and software technology company, have announced a strategic partnership to enable highly automated trucking, starting on highways.
The teams – which include experts at Torc Robotics, part of Daimler Trucks’ Autonomous Technology Group – will work closely together in order to enhance lidar sensing, perception, and system-level performance for Daimler trucks moving at highway speeds.
To strengthen the partnership, Daimler Trucks has acquired a minority stake in Luminar.
As part of their joint commitment to safety, the companies will also collaborate on safety standards and operating practices, and make future policy advancements and safety enhancements as a result of the joint program.
Dr. Peter Vaughan Schmidt, Head of Autonomous Technology Group at Daimler Trucks: “Luminar has pioneered a critical enabling technology for bringing automated vehicles to the road, and we’re excited to work closely with them to drive this technology forward. Their company has proven visionary in its focus and unique ability to enable long-range sensing and high-speed driving on the highway. Our common goal is to enable safe deployment of highly automated trucks and shape the future of the trucking and logistics industry at large.”
Austin Russell, Luminar’s Founder and CEO, adds: “Our partnership with Daimler Trucks is spearheading the next era of commercial transportation, taking the multi-trillion global trucking and logistics industry head-on. The business case for autonomous trucking is incredibly strong, and now is seeing the first OEM program to bring it to the world.”
Michael Fleming, CEO of Torc Robotics, states: “We are excited by the opportunity to work with Luminar and their long-range, high resolution Lidar to improve truck safety and enable us to commercialize self-driving trucks. This is a critical, enabling technology on our development path.”
Founded in 2012, Luminar is a 350-person team with offices in Palo Alto, Orlando, Colorado Springs, Detroit, and Munich. It’s set to be listed on the Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol ‘LAZR’.
For more on this story and to download copyright-free images, click on the link below.
Keyword: Daimler Trucks Partners With Luminar to Enable Automated Trucking; Takes Stake