Mercedes adding Luminar lidar to more vehicles in multibillion-dollar deal

Mercedes-Benz has agreed to a “multibillion-dollar” woody pinch Luminar to merge lidar exertion and package into nan German automaker’s next-generation of vehicles group to spell into accumulation by nan mediate of nan decade.

The woody announced Wednesday during an arena astatine nan Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America installation successful Sunnyvale, California is an description of an existing partnership betwixt nan 2 companies.

A increasing number of automakers including Mercedes judge that lidar, aliases ray discovery and ranging radar, is simply a basal sensor utilized alongside cameras and radar to support automated driving features.

Under nan recently expanded agreement, Luminar lidar and accompanying package will beryllium integrated into a wide scope of Mercedes’ next-generation accumulation vehicles. The Luminar lidar will beryllium successful Mercedes vehicles equipped pinch its Drive Pilot system, which allows for hands-free, eyes disconnected driving nether definite conditions connected highways.

Luminar said it plans to build a mill successful Asia to support nan deal. Luminar didn’t disclose nan accumulation capacity of this Asia factory. A institution spokesperson did disclose that nan caller mill will beryllium almost wholly dedicated to supplying lidar sensors to Mercedes.

Mercedes announced successful January 2022 it would usage Luminar’s lidar exertion successful early vehicles arsenic portion of a broader woody that includes information sharing and nan automaker taking a mini liking successful nan company. As portion of nan deal, Mercedes-Benz acquired up to 1.5 cardinal Luminar shares, successful speech for definite information and services.

That first improvement partnership, which has been underway since 2021, was constricted to 1 high-end conveyance model. This recently expanded business will still see nan data-sharing constituent and turn to aggregate conveyance models. Luminar’s next-generation Iris lidar, which is designed to meet Mercedes-Benz needs for its automated driving system, will spell into accumulation successful by mid-decade. Luminar’s first-generation Iris lidar entered its bid accumulation successful October 2022.

Mercedes said nan lidar will not only support its conditional automated driving strategy Drive Pilot, it will let nan strategy to run astatine higher speeds. Today, Drive Pilot allows for hands-free, eyes disconnected driving up to 40 miles per hr connected definite highways. It’s only disposable successful Mercedes S Class and Mercedes EQS vehicles successful Germany. Drive Pilot-equipped vehicles, which presently usage lidar from Valeo, will beryllium disposable for waste successful definite U.S. markets later this year.

Currently, only Nevada has certified nan strategy for usage successful nan state. Mercedes has besides applied for certification successful California.

“In a first measurement we person introduced a Level 3 strategy successful our apical statement models. Next, we want to instrumentality precocious automated driving features successful a broader standard wrong our portfolio,” Mercedes CTO Markus Schäfer said successful a statement.