Luminar CEO Says Volvo EX90 Defines a New Era of Safety
November 09 2022 - 9:22AM
Business Wire
“For the first time, a global production
vehicle integrates high-performance lidar and software to enable
next generation smart and safe cars that set a new bar for the
industry”
Today Luminar (Nasdaq: LAZR) joined Volvo Cars to unveil the
new, all-electric Volvo EX90 which will come standard with
Luminar’s technology on each vehicle produced to enable advanced
safety and autonomous capabilities on highways in the future.
Luminar CEO Austin Russell shared his thoughts on the significance
of this moment and how Luminar will scale its production globally
with Volvo Cars next year.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005667/en/
The new, all-electric Volvo EX90
standardized with Luminar technology (Photo: Business Wire)
Today we see the fruits of a now 5-year collaboration with Volvo
Cars. For the first time, a global production vehicle is equipped
with high-performance lidar and software to enable next generation
smart and safe cars that set a new bar for the industry. Luminar’s
Iris lidar is seamlessly integrated into the roofline to optimize
for safety and performance, with form following function. All of
this represents the beginning of a paradigm shift in the automotive
industry from horsepower to brainpower.
From the start, Luminar’s strategy has been to get life saving
technology in the hands of as many people as possible – by first
focusing on enabling advanced safety and unlocking autonomy for
consumers with production vehicle programs. This stands in stark
contrast to the vast majority of autonomous vehicle companies and
programs that are building small fleets of self-driving robo-taxi
prototypes with the goal of replacing ride-hailing drivers, rather
than focusing on technology for safety, ADAS, and highway autonomy
on production vehicles. Those ambitious efforts have proven
extraordinarily challenging to solve from a technical standpoint,
not to mention from a business, manufacturing, and capital needs
perspective. As many of you have witnessed, headlines abound across
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal questioning why so
many of these ambitious autonomous technology plans have not
materialized, wondering when or even if it’s going to ultimately
happen – but the reality is that they’re asking the wrong question.
It isn’t about when, it’s about what and how… and today, we have
our answer. It’s by enhancing the driver, not replacing the driver,
which has always been our objective. As companies in this industry
have over promised and under delivered, we aim to be the company
that continues to under promise and over deliver – and deliver real
product, real value, to what is a really large automotive
market.
While this conclusion may be obvious now, Volvo Cars was among
the first to foresee this outcome and align with our big strategic
bet by focusing on applying the technology to its consumer
production vehicles – to help save lives through advanced safety
features and can save time through focused application of autonomy
for highway driving. In many ways, this adoption of lidar draws
parallels to Volvo Cars’ historic past when they were the first to
introduce the 3 point seat belt on their vehicles. We
wholeheartedly share their view that just as the seat belt
transformed safety for the 20th century, lidar can have that once
in a generation impact over the next century.
A big part of what makes the Volvo EX90 so unique and bold is
that it’s democratizing safety by including the lidar as standard
on every vehicle. This completely bucks the historical automotive
practice of gradually introducing new technologies and features as
options on ultra-high end vehicles, and only becoming standard over
the course of a decade or two for the mainstream. But there’s one
fundamental difference here: this isn’t just any widget or
incremental convenience feature on the vehicle. This is something
that has the ability to save lives, prevent collisions and
injuries, and make a fundamental difference to the driving
experience. The customer value and business case is there, but
rationalizing it and executing it is more about culture –
prioritizing the customer above all, which is exactly what they’re
doing. In the forthcoming world of autonomous cars, Volvo Cars is
the company that’s putting people first.
About Luminar:
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 and Mercedes-Benz for
consumer vehicles and Daimler Trucks for commercial trucks, to tech
partners NVIDIA and Intel’s Mobileye, Luminar is poised to be the
first automotive technology company to enable next-generation
safety and autonomous capabilities for production vehicles. For
more information please visit www.luminartech.com.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005667/en/
Media Relations: Press@luminartech.com
Investor Relations: Trey Campbell Investors@luminartech.com
Luminar Technologies (NASDAQ:LAZR)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Luminar Technologies (NASDAQ:LAZR)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024