Mercedes-Benz partners Luminar on self-driving technology
By Dele Ojo
Mercedes-Benz, the luxury carmaker, is partnering with self-driving sensor maker Luminar Technologies Inc to enable fully automated driving on highways for its next-generation vehicles. The partnership is to accelerate the development of future highly automated driving technologies for Mercedes passenger cars.
Luminar, in a statement, said Luminar’s Iris lidar technology, which is currently being prepared for series production, is expected to improve vehicle safety and the technical capabilities of highly automated driving systems. The partnership represents a major commercial win for Luminar, and the company is leveraging its foundational technology as it continues to execute towards series production.
“This partnership is a landmark moment in the industry, demonstrating how substantially increased safety and autonomous driving functions on consumer vehicles are going from sci-fi to mainstream,” said Austin Russell, Founder, and CEO. “Mercedes-Benz has always been a technological leader and first mover for the industry, with the brand synonymous with automotive innovation, safety, luxury, and quality.”
“Luminar is the perfect addition to our existing roster of first-class cooperation with leading and cutting–edge tech companies. Mercedes-Benz’s achievement of SAE Level 3 already marked a huge milestone for automated driving and I am absolutely convinced that partnerships will increase our level of ambition for what is possible in the future.
“Cooperation is an essential part of Mercedes-Benz’s strategy. Therefore, I am highly delighted to have Austin Russell and Luminar on board for our journey,” says Markus Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG, Chief Technology Officer responsible for Development and Procurement Procurement at Mercedes-Benz’ Sindelfingen, Germany plant.
Mercedes-Benz AG is responsible for the global business of Mercedes-Benz Cars and Mercedes-Benz Vans, with over 170,000 employees worldwide.
The company focuses on the development, production, and sales of passenger cars, vans, and vehicle-related services. Furthermore, the company aspires to be the leader in the fields of electric mobility and vehicle software.
Luminar is a global automotive technology company ushering in a new era of vehicle safety and autonomy. For the past decade, Luminar has built an advanced hardware and software platform to enable its more than 50 industry partners, including the majority of global automotive OEMs. From Volvo Cars for consumer vehicles and Daimler Truck AG for commercial trucks to tech partners NVIDIA and Intel’s Mobileye, Luminar is the first automotive technology company to enable next-generation safety and autonomous capabilities for production vehicles.
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