Mercedes has announced that it has inked a deal with LiDAR maker Luminar whose devices will be incorporated in its vehicles in the future. Mercedes has also taken a small stake in the company with the acquisition of 1.5 million shares. As a part of the deal, Luminar will also be sharing data with the luxury carmaker.
Luminar in particular has closed a deal with Daimler North America which is the parent of Mercedes in the US. Daimler will also share data from development and production vehicles for the continuous development of the systems.
“A landmark moment in the industry that will demonstrate how substantially increased safety and autonomous driving functions on consumer vehicles are going from sci-fi to mainstream,” said Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell.
Currently, both companies haven’t revealed when the first Mercedes car will be revealed which will have a Luminar LiDAR. LiDAR is critical for autonomous driving – more importantly, sophisticated autonomous systems which aim for self-driving capabilities, something Mercedes currently lacks in its vehicles.
Luminar already has announced a deal with Volvo and will be integrating its LiDAR and software in its cars. Volvo will also unveil an electric SUV later this year which will feature Luminar’s technology.
However, Luminar’s deal with Daimler is also about the development of its Iris LiDAR system. This is not the first time Daimler has invested in Luminar its trucking division also invested in the LiDAR maker for its Blade system.