To enhance highly automated driving and safety systems for commercial vehicle manufacturers, Luminar, a leading global automotive technology firm, and Plus, a global provider of highly automated driving and completely autonomous driving solutions, have partnered. As per the deal, Luminar will be PlusDrive's sole source of mid- to long-range lidar for its commercial vehicle assisted driving system, PlusDrive. 

 

Additionally, Plus will be the sole outside supplier of AI-based improved driver assistance software for Luminar's commercial vehicle OEM solution.

 

“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,” said Luminar Founder and CEO Austin Russell. “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.”

 

Iris lidar from Luminar is a first-of-its-kind, automotive-grade sensing technology that makes it possible to make high-performance, far-reaching detections. Iris is the only vehicle on the market that satisfies the exacting performance, toughness, and dependability standards for class 8 commercial trucks in addition to manufacturing consumer vehicles. 

 

For both safety and comfort, ultra-long-range visibility is essential for trucking, and Luminar's lidar has a 600-meter range. At highway speeds, this translates to up to 20 seconds of visibility ahead to guarantee that even fully laden vehicles may safely come to a stop when necessary. This advances ADAS systems by a significant amount and lays the groundwork for completely autonomous driving.