A company that builds vision-based lidar and machine perception technologies for cars is acquiring another company. The latest move by Luminar is to vertically integrate core lidar components to bring more accurate, lower-cost products to market.
The deal is signed and expected to close in the second quarter, and it really brings Freedom Photonics's high-powered laser and their related photonic integrated circuit technologies to maximize the performance, as well as advance our cost roadmap, of our future sensors,
The ability to see and recognize objects far away is a major problem for self-driving vehicles. In order to get the point density and resolution needed to allow the AV system to determine whether a tire is on the road or not, a high-powered laser pulse and high-quality beams are critical, according to Eichenholz.
The deal allows Luminar to control more of the costs in the supply chain and improves the quality of its lidar. It isn't because lasers are hard to come by, but because they are a lot harder to get in an automotive qualified environment.
Luminar’s Austin Russell talks life post-IPO, AV deals and lidar’s future at TC Sessions: Mobility 2022
Lidar is one of the most expensive parts of a driving system, which makes it difficult to scale. The three key lidar hardware components that Eichenholz refers to as the "three legs of the stool" are the cost-cutting measures that Luminar is actively pursuing as it advances on its stated goal of achieving a sub-$100 bill of materials.
The tech and teams for the other two legs of the stool have already been acquired. The acquisition of Black Forest Engineers enabled it to bring down the cost of receiver from tens of thousands of dollars to $3. The acquisition of Optogration and its receiver chips unlocked performance and economics for the company, according to Eichenholz.
The CEO of Freedom Photonics said that going all-in with Luminar was the perfect opportunity for the company.
The executive team will continue to lead the business after the transaction is completed.
The terms of the transaction will not be made public until later on Monday.
Lidar startup Luminar to go public via $3.4 billion SPAC merger
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