ORLANDO, Fla. and SANTA CLARA, Calif. — A partnership has been announced between Luminar (Nasdaq: LAZR), a prominent global automotive technology company, and Plus, a worldwide provider of highly automated driving and fully autonomous driving solutions. The collaboration aims to advance highly automated driving and safety systems for commercial vehicle manufacturers.
Under the agreement, Luminar will serve as the exclusive provider of mid- to long-range lidar for PlusDrive, Plus’s assisted driving system designed for commercial vehicles. Concurrently, Plus will act as the exclusive third-party provider of AI-based enhanced driver assist software for Luminar’s commercial vehicle OEM solution.
Austin Russell, Founder and CEO of Luminar, stated, “Trucking is a key emerging market for Luminar, and the same products and technology we’ve successfully executed on for our production consumer vehicle programs are beginning to be deployed on commercial vehicles as well. We see Plus as a new strategic partner for us to enable enhanced safety and autonomous capabilities for production commercial vehicles at even greater scale, in light of their commercial success with some of the largest companies in the industry.”
Luminar’s Iris lidar represents an automotive grade sensing solution that is unique in its capabilities. It enables high-performance, long-range detections, meeting the demanding requirements for class 8 commercial trucks in terms of performance, robustness, and reliability.
With a visibility range of up to 600 meters, Luminar’s lidar provides as much as 20 seconds of visibility ahead at highway speeds, ensuring that even fully loaded trucks can come to a safe stop when necessary. This advancement offers significant improvement to ADAS systems while establishing the foundation for full autonomy.
David Liu, CEO and Co-Founder of Plus, commented, “The partnership between Luminar and Plus unlocks the tremendous business value of next-generation safety and highly automated driving systems for vehicle manufacturers and fleets alike. Luminar will enable PlusDrive to achieve new heights in sensing at further distances and at highway speeds. This will enable the scalable commercialization of driver-in technology today and accelerate our customers’ path to full autonomy tomorrow.”
PlusDrive, the L2++ solution developed by Plus, allows for supervised autonomy and is already available commercially. It is utilized by major fleets around the world for freight delivery. PlusDrive employs components such as lidar, radar, and cameras from award-winning manufacturers to provide a 360-degree view around the vehicle and anticipate the behavior of surrounding vehicles.
The AI-based software processes the gathered data and safely maneuvers the vehicle, handling tasks such as stop-and-go traffic, lane changes, lane merges, nudging when next to an oversized vehicle, and staying centered in the lane. The driver remains alert and attentive while the system operates, and new driving features are continuously added through over-the-air software updates.
In addition to their collaborative efforts in highly automated driving systems, Plus and Luminar will explore cooperation in Luminar’s commercial vehicle insurance program, high-definition mapping, and trucking sensor integration known as Blade.
