Luminar Moves To Production with Volvo

My Forbes editor Alan Ohnsman breaks the news that Luminar has signed an agreement to supply Volvo cars with lidar units, starting in 2022.

“Soon, your Volvo will be able to drive autonomously on highways when the car determines it is safe to do so,” said Henrik Green, chief technology officer for Volvo Cars.

That sounds a lot like Level 3 autonomy. The timing of this announcement is particularly interesting, coming right on the heels of Audi retreating from Level 3 — due to liability concerns.

The Volvo ADAS systems I’ve tested out in the past have always been quite impressive — in the top tier of systems behind Tesla Autopilot. If there is one way for competitors to catch and surpass Tesla, it might be exploiting the lidar technology that Tesla has famously eschewed.