Luminar

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.

Automotive safety and autonomy specialist Luminar Technologies announced that EV automaker Polestar intends to deepen its partnership with the former by implementing its long-range Iris lidar into the upcoming Polestar 5, based on the Precept concept. Additionally, the automaker has enabled consumers pre-ordering a Polestar 3 SUV to add the Luminar lidar to their configuration starting today.