lidar

As passenger mobility becomes electric and more technologically advanced, engineers have developed several components to make car travel easier, more efficient, and, most importantly, safer. One of those emerging technologies is LiDAR, which has several benefits for OEMs who integrate it. Hesai Technologies is one of the leading companies helping make that LiDAR-centric transition possible.

Automated and fully autonomous driving developer Plus has selected Luminar as its exclusive long-range LiDAR provider to support its PlusDrive assisted driving system for commercial vehicles. Together, the companies hope to expand road safety and autonomy across the commercial trucking segment.

Mere months after sharing its production timeline for a new high-volume facility in Mexico, lidar sensor developer Luminar has taken the factory online ahead of schedule and has already begun delivering the first Iris sensors manufactured at the site to one of its largest customers.

Global automotive tech company and lidar specialist Luminar Technologies hosted its annual Luminar Day event at its headquarters in Orlando, Florida, today, offering a slew of updates on its progress. This includes new lidar like its Iris+ sensor, a more clear product roadmap bolstered by a new high-volume production facility in North America, and consolidated subsidiaries into a new semiconductor business. Lots to unfold here, so let’s get started.

Mercedes-Benz announced multiple newsworthy innovations during its Operating System Strategy Update in Sunnyvale, California earlier today. The German automaker announced it is building its own proprietary operating system called MB.OS which will offer features like navigation and maps from Google. Additionally, Mercedes announced it is expanding upon a previous partnership with lidar specialist Luminar in a new multi-billion dollar deal to integrate the tech by mid-decade.

As we reported last month, Tesla’s plans to bring self-driving cars to market without using LiDAR sensors are raising a few eyebrows. That’s because we have been told for years now by most people in the industry that it wasn’t achievable, but the company moved forward with its plans in a big way last month when it started producing all cars with a self-driving-ready hardware suite without LiDAR.

The Drive is now confusing quite a few people about Tesla’s strategy by claiming that the automaker is actually planning to use LiDAR in a new article titled: “Despite Public Stance, Musk Secretly Plans to Use LiDAR in Future Tesla Models: Ignore Musk’s tweets and what he’s said in earnings calls, a Tesla equipped with LiDAR is in the works.” (Update: the Drive has since changed its headline to nuance the claim)

But it’s actually not the case. Here’s why:
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Another Tesla Model S prototype with lidar sensor was spotted in Palo Alto today. It follows a recent sighting of another Tesla vehicle with a lidar sensor, though the lidar tower, from Velodyne, is different this time. 
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The limits of the Autopilot under its current suite of sensors have been debated for a while, especially since Tesla has been discussing an upcoming second-generation hardware for the program to allow fully autonomous driving.

But last night, Elon Musk announced that “certainly moderate and maybe big advances” are possible with Tesla’s current sensors.
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A Tesla Model S with a LIDAR sensor mounted on the roof has been spotted around the automaker’s headquarters in Palo Alto last week. Tesla is set to soon release its next generation sensor suite for the Autopilot program, but so far, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made it clear that a lidar sensor is not in the company’s plans.

Maybe things have changed, but it’s unlikely.
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