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Luminar 

January 2025 Wrap-Up

Luminar Expands Business With Two Global Automakers & Reports Third Quarter 2024 Business Update 

Special Delivery: Volvo EX90 Begins Shipping

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Industry news

Global conferences, private demos, car deliveries, an insurance win, design awards and more in our January 2025 Monthly Wrap-Up: 

The Luminar team met with everyone from automakers to suppliers at CES 2025, making this year’s CES one of our most productive to date.

Luminar’s technology was on full display as part of our key partner exhibits, including Volvo’s EX90 with Luminar’s Iris technology as standard featured in NVIDIA’s CES showcase. And for the first time, 

 was displayed integrated into an all-glass panoramic rooftop by our partners at Wideye® by AGC. 

The team also gave key customers a sneak peak at the inner mechanics of 

 as well as the various applications this new smaller, more powerful form factor enables. 

 is our next generation LiDAR sensor, designed to have 2x the resolution of Iris yet 1/3 the size, giving it the lowest install profile in the industry. 

Automotive World Expo with Cornes in Japan

In partnership with Cornes Technologies, the Luminar team attended the Automotive World Expo in Tokyo, Japan from Jan. 21-23. Luminar Halo was a key focus with the team giving live presentations covering the launch of Volvo Car’s EX90 featuring Luminar LiDAR—the first global production vehicle to include LiDAR as standard –and our next generation LiDAR technology, Luminar Halo.

The next big expo for our team in Japan will be the 

Automotive Engineering Exposition 2025, in YOKOHAMA, Japan, May 21-23

The Luminar Team headed over to Volvo Cars’ factory in South Charleston to get up close and personal with production on Volvo's EX90 featuring Luminar’s Iris technology as standard. In addition to checking out our hardware on the factory floor, the team also picked up a couple of our first Volvo EX90s for our teams back in Orlando. 

The Luminar Semiconductor Inc. team headed to San Francisco this week to participate in the 

, the world’s largest photonics technologies event! 

Our team presented their development work related to 

increasing the reliability and reducing the cost of pump lasers

 (a key component used by all 1550nm fiber lasers) and hosted multiple booths on the show floor.

The Luminar Semi team not only develops the advanced receiver, laser and processing chips that power Luminar Halo, they also develop photonic solutions for defense and aerospace, sensing and instrumentation, optical communications and robotics. 

In January 2025, Luminar was named an Insurance Innovation Award winner by InnSure for our upcoming insurance product! 

Recognized as a novel, innovative solution, Luminar Insurance is expected to accelerate the adoption of Luminar's LiDAR technology on passenger vehicles to help significantly improve vehicle safety. 

The Luminar team was awarded GOLD in the 2024 Spark Design Awards!

The Spark Design Awards identify products across a broad spectrum that represent designing our future—specifically highlighting big ideas embodied as great designs. 

Luminar Halo was named a Gold Winner in the Spark Awards Transport category. This is the second major design accolade for Luminar Halo, following Luminar’s win for Best Industrial Design in the 2024 Silicon Valley UX Awards.

Luminar Halo is designed from the chip-level up for deployment across millions of vehicles with improved performance, sleeker streamlined vehicle integration, and automated assembly.

________________________________________

And that’s a wrap on January 2025. Our next big event will be 

NVIDIA’s GTC Conference in San Jose, California, March 17-21

 with our partners at NVIDIA and Volvo Cars.

and as always, thanks for your interest and ongoing support!

A portion of Austin Kingsley Russell’s holdings was transferred to two Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs), the “AKR Luminar Holdings Family Trust GRAT A” and the "AKR Luminar Holdings Family Trust GRAT B" prior to year-end.

About GRATs: GRATs are common financial instruments generally used to optimize tax related strategies. Following the transfer of assets to the GRAT, appreciation that occurs beyond a market-rate interest return is tax-free to its beneficiaries.

A transfer to a GRAT does not constitute an acquisition or sale of the underlying assets. In this case, the beneficiaries remain in Russell’s family.

Information on Founder's Transfer of Holdings to Trust (GRAT)

The Luminar Q3’24 Business Update press release and presentation are now available on our Investor website: 

https://investors.luminartech.com/financial-information/financial-results

Founder and CEO Austin Russell and CFO Tom Fennimore will host a video webcast, featuring a business update and financials followed by a live Q&A session.

 Quarterly business update, Q3 financials and live Q&A

https://www.luminartech.com/quarterlyreview

A replay of the webcast will be available following the presentation.

For additional information or to be added to Luminar's investor distribution list, please visit us at 

https://investors.luminartech.com/ir-resources/email-alerts

Today, Luminar advanced the next phase of our restructuring efforts by further reducing our overhead. This includes the difficult decision to say goodbye to approximately 30% of our general administrative and back-office workforce among other non-technical roles. In total, this phase represents an additional 15% of our broader employee base, which is additive to the previously disclosed cost savings and headcount actions we undertook starting in May this year in conjunction with our expanded industrialization partnership with TPK.

These new workforce adjustments, along with other cost-saving measures to take place over the coming quarters, are expected to generate an additional ~$80 million in cash savings annually on a run-rate basis. Importantly, today’s cuts are not expected to adversely impact our technical milestones, customer programs, or product deliverables. They will, however, help our path to profitability with improved cash flow and incrementally reduced gross margin overhead.

Our overhead was built in a different climate, view on value, and cost of capital. The core of our business has never been stronger across technology, product, industrialization, and commercialization, and these are the areas we’d like to focus the vast majority of our resources on.

While our industry often requires patience, the opportunity for LiDAR and Luminar has never been brighter and more tangible. We have successfully built out our technology platform, made the necessary investments, and brought it into series production - with the first Luminar-equipped cars now being delivered to dealers and consumers around the world as we ramp.

Thank you to our Luminary team members and those along on our journey as we scale with a leaner, stronger, more efficient team.

A Message from Founder & CEO, Austin Russell 

Last week, I had the privilege of receiving one of the first EX90 SUVs from Volvo Cars’ CEO, Jim Rowan, as hundreds of journalists from around the world descended on Newport Beach, California to drive Volvo Cars’ new flagship vehicle themselves.

It was an incredibly proud moment for me and all of us at Luminar to see it come together, culminating years of R&D, industrialization, and collaboration with Volvo to deploy long-range LiDAR in global production vehicles. In 2020, Volvo bucked the trend when they announced this strategy, opting to focus on enhancing drivers through improved safety and advancing assisted/autonomous features, rather than looking to replace drivers with robo-taxis like most other automakers.

The intervening years have proven this was the right approach. With Volvo, Luminar has developed a ~$2 billion technology platform that’s expandable to vehicles across the industry. That’s exactly what’s happening next – the EX90 is the first of two dozen commercial programs to follow, and a vision for the future of automotive.

Every year, we continue to lose as many as 1.5 million lives around the world from vehicle collisions, which also causes trillions of dollars in damage. Implementing long-range LiDAR is arguably the most significant step we can take towards solving this catastrophic problem to enable safer cars and safer roads. Third party research reports from Swiss Re indicate that safety systems with Luminar LiDAR have the ability to reduce serious injuries in accidents by nearly 40%. U.S. regulators also agree with Volvo’s vision for a safer automotive future and have issued a 

 that all new vehicles sold in the US must meet dramatically tougher active safety standards and at higher speeds. This is the first major step on our path to ultimately enable something we like to call the “uncrashable car”.

Following the launch, Volvo Cars has begun delivering EX90s to retailers as a first step, in order to reach consumers’ hands. Production is ramping and we’ll begin seeing the virtuous cycle of filling our production capacity and achieving economies of scale next year, while simultaneously more LiDAR-enabled features become available subsequent to data collection and validation. Critically, this is also the first time that most consumers at global scale will gain exposure to automotive LiDAR, outside the roof-rack spinning systems of a few hundred robo-taxi test vehicles people see when visiting certain cities in the U.S. Through next year, we’ll already have tens of thousands of vehicles on the road. This is the start of our growth curve.

LiDAR on passenger cars is not just a passing trend in automotive technology, but rather a paradigm shift in how we think about keeping drivers, passengers, and pedestrians safe, while also being a fundamental requirement for eventual true autonomy. Just as Apple introduced the iPhone in 2008 to a widespread consumer audience, I truly believe this is the autonomy industry’s “iPhone moment”, when people can start to see the technology on the road as opposed to a promised future, and it takes a visionary brand leader like Volvo to make it a reality. 

As people start to see this technology on their local streets, they’ll start to want the same safety enhancements for their own families and the best technology. True to their history, Volvo has yet again set the stage for the new era of safety in automotive, while future proofing the vision for autonomy. We’re looking forward to our next chapter together as the industry follows in their footsteps.

The Luminar Q2’24 Business Update press release and presentation are now available on our Investor website: 

Founder and CEO Austin Russell and CFO Tom Fennimore will host a video webcast, featuring a business update and financials followed by a live Q&A session. 

 Quarterly business update, Q2 financials and live Q&A

A replay will be available following the conclusion of the webcast. 

Luminar Bolsters Balance Sheet & Reports Second Quarter 2024 Business Update   

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/AI platform to enable its over 50 industry partners, including most global automotive OEMs. From consumer vehicle programs with Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz to technology partnerships including NVIDIA and Mobileye, Luminar is poised to be the first automotive technology company to enable next-generation safety and autonomous capabilities for global production vehicles. For more information, please visit www.luminartech.com.



Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on expectations and assumptions by our management and involve a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated, including that automakers will adopt our software for series production, that incorporating our technology will result in significant reductions in vehicle crashes and insurance costs, and that our technology can be incorporated in vehicles to meet new safety regulations. More information on these risks and other potential factors that could affect the Company’s business is included in the Company’s periodic filings with the SEC, including in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of the Company’s most reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made.



Luminar Launches Sentinel Software for Automakers

Congrats to Volvo Cars on starting production for the EX90!

Luminar is the first and only LiDAR technology to be launched on a global production vehicle and included as standard equipment, and we are proud to be partnered with Volvo Cars in this effort.  

For more information, read the official press release from Volvo Cars 

Congratulations to our partners at Volvo Cars for hitting this milestone!

Volvo Cars Starts Production of EX90

The Luminar Q1’24 Business Update press release and presentation are now available on our Investor website: 


Founder and CEO Austin Russell and CFO Tom Fennimore will host a video webcast, featuring a business update followed by a live Q&A session.


 Quarterly business update, Q1 financials and live Q&A.


 5:00 p.m. EDT (2:00 p.m. PDT)

A live webcast of the event will be available on Luminar’s Investor site at 

. A replay of the webcast will be available following the presentation.

Luminar Reports First Quarter 2024 Business Update and Financials 

After a decade of intensive R&D, product development, and industrialization, last month Luminar officially achieved Start of Production (SOP) at global scale, with the first production model being the Volvo EX90. It’s a validation of our big bet on enhancing (rather than replacing) the driver, and our focus on safety above all, and begins conversion of our multi-billion Order Book to revenue.

Today, we stand at the crossroads of two realities: the core of our business has never been stronger across technology, product, industrialization, and commercialization; yet at the same time the capital markets perception of our company has never been more challenging.

To date, we’ve invested $1.8 billion to build the breakthrough technology foundation from the semiconductor-level up, which has enabled us to help lead the industry and collaborate with top automakers to build their platforms on our technology.

Our vision is to democratize safety and enable autonomy, which was supported earlier this week by US regulators announcing a new legal mandate for the same kind of advanced automatic emergency braking functionality that we enable to be required on all new vehicles by 2029. We see this as a catalyst for Luminar to help enable automakers to achieve these new standards and save more lives.

Now that we’ve made the necessary billion-dollar R&D investments from the chip-level up and successfully launched with SOP as a standardized technology, the business model and cost structure that enabled us to achieve this leadership position no longer fit the needs of the company.

Today, we are announcing an evolution in our business to a more “asset-light” model. The first step in this transition involves outsourcing more of the industrialization process to our existing partners. This new structure will enable us to (a) accelerate our next-generation products to market, (b) enable flexible and rapid scaling with automakers beyond our current capacity, (c) drastically reduce cost overhead on industrialization activities and for our company at large, and (d) deliver strong profitability on unit economics. Today marks the first major step in this shift, and I’ll be sharing more details on this evolution in the coming weeks.

While we’ve contemplated this possibility for some time, we knew we first needed to reach SOP. In anticipation, at the beginning of this year we began executing nearly a dozen internal initiatives to deliver on this new business model by expanding our technical and industrialization partnerships, and particularly our partnership with TPK. They have now committed to an exclusive relationship with Luminar, in which they are providing substantial dedicated industrialization resources to manage, accelerate, and substantially cost-down our supply chains, all the way from Iris to Luminar Halo. At Luminar Day, the CEO of TPK described our global launch to automakers as the “iPhone moment” for the autonomous industry, and they’re making a big bet on us - in a similar way to Foxconn with Apple in the early 2000’s before the iPhone launch, when Apple was just a $5 billion company.

This shift also means a substantial reduction in costs across the board. By far the most difficult and emotional decision has been to reduce our full-time employee base by roughly 20% which we announced today. Many of these team members have been on our journey with us for years, which is why this is so difficult. We have also made the decision to roll off the majority of our contractors who supported us to SOP. We have informed the affected employees regarding the roles that are no longer required at this juncture.

In parallel, we are taking the opportunity to streamline other costs, flatten our organizational structure in certain areas, as previously shared renewing our strategic equity program for financial flexibility if needed, and better aligning the vast majority of our employee base to the core of what we do best - building breakthrough technology across semiconductors, optics, lasers, and AI software that automakers require in this new era.

As a result of this evolution, our expanded partnerships and our cost-saving actions, as a first step Luminar is expecting to realize more than $400 million in savings over the next 5 years, while simultaneously accelerating our long-term growth and path to profitability. In the more immediate term, we are expecting to realize over $80 million in savings on an annual run rate basis from the various actions I mentioned. Our shift in operating model and actions today are not expected to materially affect our growth plan, and, rather, will enable an acceleration of our product timelines and scale.

As the leader of our Luminary team, these kinds of decisions are never easy, and we’re taking steps to provide significant support for our exiting employees. At the same time, we know these are the necessary steps to best position Luminar and maximize success throughout the decade - to save the greatest number of lives, time, and money for drivers around the world.

___________________________________________________________________________

Luminar’s Business Evolution

Luminar Technologies and Applied Intuition are partnering to provide the first validated sensor models of Luminar LiDARs for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving (AD) simulation. This partnership aims to offer automakers access to high-fidelity LiDAR data for inclusion in their simulations. Automakers will be able to use Applied Intuition’s sensor simulator 

 to validate their lidar-based ADAS or AD software in virtual environments while reducing the need for expensive real-world tests.

Sensor Sim enables OEMs to create and simulate edge case scenarios with perception and planning systems in the loop. Integrated Luminar LiDAR models and real-time point cloud generation accurately capture LiDAR behaviors that match the sensor hardware in development vehicles.

Luminar uses Applied Intuition's simulation platform to develop their ADAS stack, Sentinel. Sentinel provides a fully redundant, AI and geometric-based safety solution that can dramatically reduce vehicle accidents and injuries. With the integration of Sentinel and Object Sim, Luminar can now run the full Sentinel pipeline within the virtual environment, controlling simulated vehicles in the same manner as real world vehicles, including acceleration, steering and braking. Through closed-loop simulation, Luminar can easily develop against and validate the edge cases of real-world driving scenarios that are challenging for today’s perception systems and active safety functions.

For Luminar’s software team, development and testing have always gone hand in hand, employing industry-best methods to ensure no line of code goes untested. For higher-level software integration tests, Luminar has consistently tested all levels of algorithms in their own fleet of development vehicles. However, conducting full-stack testing in simulation scales better than in vehicles which must be retrofitted with drive-by-wire systems, compute capability, and sensors. With Sensor Sim’s high level of accuracy, Luminar is now able to simulate its LiDAR sensor’s output and run the full Sentinel stack in a simulated environment. This results in a level of point cloud, perception, and actuation fidelity that rivals running the software stack in an actual development vehicle.

Conducting full-stack testing in Object Sim and Sensor Sim allows many more Luminar developers to concurrently test portions of their software on a full system level as they do not require a test vehicle. Simulation tests also provide 100% repeatability, allowing edge cases to be isolated, tested, and retested with incorporated lessons learned. With these simulation capabilities, developers and Luminar's CI can run large scale experiments asynchronously across many scenario variations.

Production grade automotive hardware and software require extensive testing campaigns to validate performance on hundreds of thousands of hours of operation. This statistically significant test coverage is traditionally extremely time consuming and expensive. The collaboration between Applied Intuition and Luminar significantly accelerates development time by moving large parts of the required data collection from the physical vehicle fleet to a virtual one which can be parallelized to run many scenarios concurrently. Testing to this required statistical depth can be extremely time-consuming and expensive. The collaboration between Applied Intuition and Luminar significantly accelerates development time by moving large parts of the required data collection from the physical vehicle fleet to a virtual one that only requires compute time and can run many scenarios in parallel 24/7.

Faster development time helps enable quicker iterations, such as adding additional functionality and performance improvements.

How the Luminar LiDAR Navigates a Challenging Simulation Scenario

Today's Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) systems are frequently developed to handle clearly visible pedestrians and vehicles, but can fail when put to the test with more challenging scenarios around visibility and timing. Below is an example simulated scenario of a late reveal small child in a low visibility environment where the vehicle must instantly identify the collision threat and apply the brakes. In this example, the Sentinel software package correctly identifies and tracks the pedestrian, evaluates the collision probability, calculates a trajectory to avoid it, and then applies the brakes in the simulated ego vehicle in the Applied platform.

The end to end simulation of challenging scenarios like this one, which test the limits of detection capabilities of the sensor and software are necessary to bring these systems to the real world faster, and at higher quality, ultimately realizing safety benefits for all.

Applied Intuition is a Tier 1 vehicle software supplier that accelerates the adoption of safe and intelligent machines worldwide. Founded in 2017, Applied Intuition delivers the definitive ADAS/AD toolchain and a world-class vehicle platform to help customers shorten time to market, build industry-leading products, and create next-generation consumer experiences. 18 of the top 20 global automakers trust Applied Intuition’s solutions to drive the production of modern vehicles. Applied Intuition serves the automotive, trucking, construction, mining, agriculture, and defense industries and is headquartered in Mountain View, CA, with offices in Ann Arbor and Detroit, MI, Washington, D.C., Munich, Stockholm, Seoul, and Tokyo. Learn more at 

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/AI platform to enable its more than 50 industry partners, including the majority of global automotive OEMs. From consumer vehicle programs with Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz to technology partnerships, Luminar is poised to be the first automotive technology company to enable next-generation safety and autonomous capabilities for global production vehicles.

Case Study: How Luminar Accelerates ADAS and AD Testing With First Validated Sensor Models of Its LiDAR 

 starting at 11am PT on Tuesday, April 23rd.

 will showcase a key inflection point for the industry as Luminar brings together the worlds of lasers and automotive into the hands of consumers, starting with the upcoming Volvo EX90.

Join Founder and CEO Austin Russell and select partners for insight on what this new era looks like for Luminar and the broader automotive industry, and the growth unlocked from this defining moment. 

Additionally, Luminar will unveil its next-generation products, technologies, and roadmap for mainstream adoption with new updates from industry leaders.

Luminar Day: A New Era

. -- Applied Intuition, a Silicon Valley-based vehicle software supplier, and Luminar (Nasdaq: LAZR), a leading global automotive technology company, are partnering to accelerate the development and adoption of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving (AD) systems for automakers. In a first step of the partnership, the companies will jointly provide the first validated sensor models of Luminar lidars, enabling automakers to test and validate ADAS and AD perception systems using Applied Intuition 

, a physics-based sensor simulator, with integrated sensor models of Luminar lidars.

Lidar sensors and software play a crucial role in ADAS and AD safety and performance, but testing and validating perception systems in the real world can be time-consuming, expensive, and dangerous. Studies show that fully autonomous systems would need to drive 

 to demonstrate safety. Automakers can save millions of dollars annually by shifting 90% of real-world perception development and testing into simulation. Using Applied Intuition and Luminar’s joint solution, automakers will be able to accurately test lidar-based perception systems in virtual environments while reducing testing costs and accelerating time to market.

Sensor Sim enables automakers to create and simulate edge case scenarios, enabling the end-to-end testing of capabilities such as pedestrian detection and avoidance in urban areas. The integrated Luminar sensor models accurately capture lidar behaviors like dynamic scan patterns. This reduces the simulation-to-real domain gap, ensuring that simulation tests correlate with a lidar’s real-world performance.

Luminar uses Sensor Sim and Applied Intuition 

, a prediction, planning, and controls simulator, to validate its sensor models to ensure their high realism and accuracy. Luminar and automakers can also leverage Applied Intuition 

 to run scalable regression tests in cloud simulation and 

to assess performance and track coverage across different operational design domains .

“Time for software development, integration, and validation of our LiDAR is one of the most significant bottlenecks for automaker adoption cycles, and to date the industry has been missing an integrated solution to this problem,” said Austin Russell, Founder and CEO of Luminar. “Applied intuition has become an established leader in the software toolchain for multiple top automakers developing next-generation ADAS and Autonomous systems, and introducing our joint solution across our customer bases can accelerate the adoption curve for our LiDAR and beyond.”

“Just as lidar sensors play an important role in safe and performant autonomous driving, an industry-first, validated toolchain is crucial to successfully developing, testing, and deploying these capabilities,” said Qasar Younis, Co-Founder and CEO of Applied Intuition. “Our joint solution with Luminar is groundbreaking. For the first time, customers can test validated Luminar lidars in our certified simulation tools, bringing high-quality autonomous systems to market faster than ever before. We look forward to strengthening our collaboration with the Luminar team and expanding our partnership in the future.”

Validated sensor models of the Luminar 

and Iris+ lidars will soon be available in Applied Intuition Sensor Sim, with plans to expand the solution to Luminar Halo LiDAR soon.




Applied Intuition is a Tier 1 vehicle software supplier that accelerates the adoption of safe and intelligent machines worldwide. Founded in 2017, Applied Intuition delivers the definitive ADAS/AD toolchain and a world-class vehicle platform to help customers shorten time to market, build industry-leading products, and create next-generation consumer experiences. 18 of the top 20 global automakers trust Applied Intuition’s solutions to drive the production of modern vehicles. Applied Intuition serves the automotive, trucking, construction, mining, agriculture, and defense industries and is headquartered in Mountain View, CA, with offices in Ann Arbor and Detroit, MI, Washington, D.C., Munich, Stockholm, Seoul, and Tokyo. Learn more at 


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/AI platform to enable its more than 50 industry partners, including the majority of global automotive OEMs. From consumer vehicle programs with Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz to technology partnerships including NVIDIA and Mobileye, Luminar is poised to be the first automotive technology company to enable next-generation safety and autonomous capabilities for global production vehicles.


Applied Intuition and Luminar Partner to Accelerate ADAS and AD Development for Automakers

.-- Luminar (Nasdaq: LAZR), a leading global automotive technology company, today announced two new key executive hires to help guide the company through its next phase of rapid growth.



 joins Luminar as the Executive Vice President of Engineering. Dr. Foster's extensive experience includes executive and leadership positions at Lyft, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and other innovative technology companies. Throughout his career, Dr. Foster has successfully launched groundbreaking products from concept to high volume production – including such iconic devices as the iMac, MacBook, MacPro, Kindle, and Kindle Fire. Dr. Foster holds a BA, MA, and Doctorate in Philosophy in Electrical Engineering and Computer Vision from the University of Oxford.

 joins Luminar as the Senior Vice President of Communications. Prior to Luminar, John led global communications at Meta. He was also Vice President for marketing and communications at Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan. John also led communications at Pershing Square Capital Management and helped guide the $20B hedge fund through the European IPO of Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. John served as head of communications at Gates Ventures where he managed Bill Gates’ executive communications and helped to launch his popular blog, The Gates Notes. Additionally, John led the Asia-Pacific communications team for Google, and held various senior communications roles at Microsoft. He holds degrees in philosophy, history and theology.


“David and John are joining Luminar at a key moment for the company as we move to production and deployment of our LiDAR technology on broadly available passenger cars. Industrializing a complex, safety-critical technology at scale in the automotive industry requires a unique skill set. It calls for a special combination of business and engineering excellence, which David has repeatedly demonstrated in prior roles. As our technology will soon be on passenger cars, John’s extensive experience in managing communications for some of the biggest brands in the world will help us educate car buyers on the benefits of LiDAR technology and Luminar’s focus on their safety.” said Luminar Founder and CEO, Austin Russell.

“I am delighted to be joining Luminar at this exciting time for the company and the industry,” said David Foster. “The products in development at Luminar will make a profoundly positive impact on the lives of motorists around the world. It is an honor to join the team in the important mission of driving this critical safety feature into every future vehicle.”

“How Luminar technology will improve driver safety is the best kind of story to tell,” said John Pinette. “This cutting-edge technology will have immediate benefits to our communities. I’m excited to be joining my new colleagues in marketing and communications to get the word out on these groundbreaking advances.”




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/AI platform to enable its more than 50 industry partners, including the majority of global automotive OEMs. From consumer vehicle programs with Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz to technology partnerships including NVIDIA and Mobileye, Luminar is poised to be the first automotive technology company to enable next-generation safety and autonomous capabilities for global production vehicles. For more information please visit 

Luminar Attracts Former Executives From Lyft, Apple and Meta, Microsoft

Luminar Reports Fourth Quarter & Full Year 2023 Business Update and Financials



The Luminar Q4’23 Business Update press release and presentation are now available on our Investor website: 

 Video webcast featuring quarterly business update, Q4 financials and live Q&A.


 2:00 p.m. PT (5:00 p.m. ET)

A live webcast of the event will be available on Luminar’s Investor site at 

 Leading global automotive technology company Luminar and the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team today 

 a new strategic collaboration that will leverage Luminar’s existing development work with Mercedes-Benz to integrate Luminar’s technology into the Official FIA F1® Safety Car with that work beginning in 2024.

LiDAR, which stands for Light and Detection Ranging, uses lasers to create a highly detailed 3D map of the surrounding environment. Luminar’s LiDAR coupled with its AI software uniquely enables precise object detection at higher speeds and under adverse driving conditions. Luminar’s technology is built from the chip-level up, and at a higher wavelength that allows it to see road debris up to 250 meters and objects up to 500 meters ahead.

The ability to detect still and moving objects at high speeds and under wide ranging conditions make Luminar’s LiDAR an excellent match for the Official FIA F1® Safety Car. Luminar and Mercedes-AMG will work together to integrate Luminar’s technology into the roofline of the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series.

Once operational, and subject to Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Formula 1® regulatory compliance and approval, and in compliance with the FIA Formula 1 regulations, the sensor would create a real-time 3D map of the environment ahead of the FIA F1® Safety Car, notably enhancing the safety car driver’s ability to assess the situation on the track while maintaining the required high speeds.

“Luminar’s technology has always been about pushing the limits of performance while improving automotive safety - and with F1, Mercedes-AMG are taking it to the extreme on a world stage of automotive enthusiasts,” said Austin Russell, Founder and CEO of Luminar. “The same leading technology developed in partnership with Mercedes-Benz for their production cars will be shared with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, demonstrating performance and safety advantages at any speed from the city, to the autobahn, to the track.”

Markus Schäfer, Mercedes-Benz AG Chief Technology Officer & Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team Non-Executive Chairman, commented: “The partnership with our Formula 1 team is a natural extension of Mercedes-Benz existing partnership with Luminar to help realize our vision for accident-free driving in Mercedes production cars. Mercedes-Benz has always been at the forefront of innovation and safety and we look forward to continuing our development efforts with Luminar to bring this technology to our F1 team.”

Toto Wolff, CEO and Team Principal, added: “I am delighted that we have launched this new partnership with Luminar. I have been thoroughly impressed by their journey so far, their technology and the work they have done. It is a truly thrilling and innovative area which will have far-reaching implications for the automotive industry and mobility more generally. Our collaboration will utilise the initial development work between Luminar and Mercedes-Benz as a bedrock, and I am excited to see how we can build on that. Luminar’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship also fits incredibly well with our own ethos and values so this is a natural collaboration.”

The Official FIA F1® Safety Car, the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series, equipped with an initial concept for the Luminar LiDAR roof integration, is on display in Luminar’s booth, West Hall 5917, at CES 2024 beginning Tuesday, January 9th at 12pm PT through Friday, January 12th.


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/AI platform to enable its more than 50 industry partners, including the majority of global automotive OEMs. From consumer vehicle programs with Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz to technology partnerships including NVIDIA and Mobileye, Luminar is poised to be the first automotive technology company to enable next-generation safety and autonomous capabilities for global production vehicles.

Luminar and Mercedes-Benz Expand Partnership to Formula 1 with the Mercedes- AMG PETRONAS Team

 Today Luminar (Nasdaq: LAZR), a leading global automotive technology company, announced an expansion of their Mercedes-Benz partnership, the debut of LiDAR-enabled Automatic Emergency Steering (AES) and Automated Valet software, and expanded automotive partnerships. The company also shared its key year-end industrialization milestone, Luminar Semiconductor achievements, and the significance of its partnerships with other technology providers like NVIDIA and Mobileye to deliver advanced safety and autonomy on multiple production vehicles for the world’s leading automakers.

“Mercedes-Benz has expanded our partnership to Formula 1, where they are integrating our same leading technology designed to keep drivers safe in their next generation vehicle lineup into their official world-renowned Safety Car,” said Austin Russell, Founder and CEO of Luminar. “Luminar is abundant throughout CES this year, from automakers, to technology partners, to suppliers, to the track, where we’re showcasing the latest LiDAR and AI powered safety and autonomous features. It’s a glimpse into the future and a testament to our technology and business, and we look forward to it being standard for all drivers, starting with the arrival of the Volvo Cars EX90 this year.”




Luminar and the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team announced a new strategic collaboration at CES 2024 that will leverage Luminar’s existing development work with Mercedes-Benz to integrate Luminar’s LiDAR technology into the Official FIA F1® Safety Car. The ability to detect still and moving objects at high speeds and under wide ranging conditions make Luminar’s LiDAR an excellent match for the Official FIA F1® Safety Car. Luminar and the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team will work together to integrate Luminar’s technology into the roofline of the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series.




Luminar debuted Automatic Emergency Steering (AES) as well as its new Automated Valet software derived from its 3D maps, all powered by the new Iris+ LiDAR at CES 2024, with live on-track crash avoidance vehicle demonstrations. Participants will experience how Luminar’s Iris+ LiDAR-powered Proactive Safety™ provides high-confidence and ultra precise detection, faster and farther than today’s most advanced camera and radar powered ADAS systems, and how new AES capabilities can help avoid collisions and save lives in critical situations drivers can encounter, even those where avoidance by braking is impossible. Luminar has also developed a fully Automated Valet feature based on its LiDAR data and 3D maps collected in real time, so consumers can leave it to Luminar to park.




Luminar has produced six new purpose-built chips for current and future generations of Luminar LiDAR since the formation of Luminar Semiconductor in Q2 2023. By combining Luminar’s chip design subsidiaries Optogration, Freedom Photonics, and Black Forest Engineering into a unified and scalable business, it enables rapid innovations and collective breakthrough developments with custom materials while meeting stringent automotive standards.




Luminar has met its year-end industrialization milestone for readiness for global start of production with Volvo with hardware and software, beginning with the EX90 this year. In Q3 2023, the Luminar successfully passed its first major Run at Rate production test for Volvo Cars at its highly automated, high volume manufacturing facility in Monterrey, Mexico. As a key requirement for automakers in advance of start of production (SOP) and as the precursor to the launch of the Volvo EX90 featuring Luminar as standard on every vehicle, the Run at Rate serves as a rigorous evaluation to assess the company’s ability to manufacture its LiDAR sensors at scale.




Luminar is achieving rapid commercial growth across hardware, software/AI, and semiconductors. Its technology is designed into over 20 vehicle models from its automotive partners around the world, which includes both combustion engine vehicles and EV’s.

As more automakers compete to deliver safer, smarter cars, technology providers are also playing an increasingly important role in helping automakers develop advanced safety systems and unlock automated driving functionality. Luminar and NVIDIA are working together to help leading automakers deliver enhanced safety and automated driving on Volvo EX90, Polestar 3, autonomous trucks from Kodiak Robotics and Plus; and across certain Mercedes-Benz production vehicle lines, and as NVIDIA’s long-range LiDAR partner on its Hyperion software platform. Luminar and Mobileye’s collaboration has also recently culminated in its first production implementation with the Polestar 4 as part of a new vehicle platform.

New commercial wins also cover both long-haul trucking and middle-mile logistics for some of the biggest retailers in the world. Kodiak Robotics announced they have now selected Luminar as the exclusive long-range LiDAR provider for their next generation autonomous truck platform. Luminar also announced that it entered a multi-year production agreement with Gatik to standardize our technology on their fleets of middle-mile delivery trucks serving customers.

Luminar’s CES exhibit will feature a vision of the Official FIA F1® Safety car, the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series, r and the Polestar 3 at the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall, # 5917, as well as Kodiak Robotics’ Gen 6 autonomous truck and Plus’ autonomous truck outdoors in the West Lot. Gatik will feature one of their trucks equipped with Luminar LiDAR in the Goodyear booth located in the West Hall, #4917. Mercedes-Benz will also feature a Concept CLA Class show car equipped with Luminar’s LiDAR in the West Hall, #4941.


Certain statements included in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “aims”, “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “set,” “continue,” “towards,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should,” “would,” “forward,” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the safety performance of software and the readiness of hardware and software for future vehicle production. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified, and on the current expectations of Luminar’s management and are not predictions of actual performance. Forward-looking statements are subject to risk and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially. For further information, review “Risk Factors” in the latest Annual Report on Form 10-K filed by Luminar and other documents filed periodically with the SEC. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made and Luminar undertakes no obligation to update any forward looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release.



Luminar and Mercedes-Benz Expands Partnership; Luminar Debuts New Emergency Steering AI Software with Iris+ and NVIDIA DRIVE Orin

 Luminar (Nasdaq: LAZR), a leading global automotive technology company, will host a press conference to share the latest news from Luminar, and debut its Automatic Emergency Steering (AES) capabilities using the new Iris+ LiDAR as a part of our Proactive Safety crash avoidance vehicle demonstrations at CES 2024.

 Luminar Founder and CEO, Austin Russell, will share updates on the company’s recent technology and industrialization milestones, new developments with key partners and a sneak peek at a unique vehicle
collaboration with one of the world’s leading automakers. In addition, the all new Polestar 3 equipped with Luminar LiDAR will be on display in the Luminar booth.

 Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall, booth #5917

 Space is limited, to secure your spot, please email: 

Proactive Safety™ Demonstrations + Trucking Partner Exhibitions

 Visit Luminar’s outdoor demo area to participate in live-on-track crash avoidance vehicle demonstrations, including first time live demonstrations of Luminar’s Automatic Emergency Steering (AES) capabilities. Participants will experience first-hand how Luminar’s Iris+ LiDAR-powered Proactive Safety™provides higher-confidence detection, faster and farther than today’s most advanced camera and radar powered ADAS systems, and how new AES capabilities can help avoid collisions at high speeds without driver intervention. Luminar’s outdoor exhibit will also feature autonomous trucks equipped with Luminar LiDAR from Kodiak Robotics and Plus.

 Tuesday, January 9 - Friday, January 12 from 9:00AM - 6:00PM PDT (times may vary by day)

 Las Vegas Convention Center West Plaza Lot #WP-10

Luminar at CES 2024

Many of you have been asking about Polestar 4 since the Mobileye announcement a few months ago. Today we are happy to answer that question with the announcement that Polestar, Mobileye and Luminar intend to equip the Polestar 4 with Luminar LiDAR and Mobileye’s Chauffeur system.

This announcement is the result of our ongoing partnership not only with Polestar, but also with Mobileye. The Polestar 4 will be the third production vehicle that will use Luminar LiDAR. It is also the first announced passenger vehicle to be based on Mobileye’s Chauffeur system equipped with Luminar LiDAR.

This follows years of development work between Luminar and Mobileye on its Level 4 Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) product and Autonomous Vehicle series solution, and our work is now being leveraged into consumer production vehicles.

The official press release is included below. We have no doubt that this will be a fruitful partnership with both Polestar and Mobileye, and we look forward to future success and more to come.

Polestar is working with Luminar, a leading automotive technology company, and Mobileye, a global leader in autonomous driving solutions, to enhance safety and the future autonomous driving capabilities of Polestar 4 with the integration of Luminar’s next-generation LiDAR technology with Mobileye's Chauffeur platform.

, Polestar 4 is planned to be the first production car to feature Mobileye Chauffeur, now with Luminar LiDAR, which builds upon the full-surround camera-based SuperVision platform available in Polestar 4 from launch. Together, the three companies aim to offer eyes-off, point-to point autonomous driving on highways, as well as eyes-on automated driving for other environments.

With Mobileye Chauffeur, Polestar 4 is set to feature three Mobileye EyeQ6 processors, a front-facing LiDAR from Luminar, and Mobileye’s front-facing imaging radar to provide the extra layer of sensing and artificial intelligence needed to enable eyes-off, hands-off driving.

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) uses lasers to create a highly detailed 3D map of the surrounding environment. Luminar’s LiDAR is uniquely engineered from chip-level up and with a higher wavelength, enabling the greatest level of performance and safety capabilities for production cars. When coupled with Mobileye’s Chauffeur platform, the result will be a turnkey, safer and high-performing automated system.

Building on the existing relationship between Luminar and Mobileye, the integration of Luminar LiDAR into Polestar 4 also expands the 

Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO, says: “Polestar 4 comes with the highly advanced Mobileye SuperVision ADAS from the start, and we look forward to expanding that with Mobileye Chauffeur in the future. Being able to add Luminar’s industry-leading LiDAR to the platform’s development increases the strong link between our companies and brings even more world-class technology to Polestar 4.”

Prof. Amnon Shashua, CEO of Mobileye, says: “Combining our base SuperVision with an independent second redundant perception system – consisting of Luminar LiDAR, radars and an imaging radar – enables true redundancy and a level of accuracy that lays the foundation for fully autonomous driving.”

Austin Russell, founder and CEO of Luminar, says: “After collaborating with Mobileye on a solution since 2019, the true fruits of our labour with them are being realised for the first time by transitioning out of R&D and into a production vehicle with Polestar. Together, we look forward to raising the benchmark in the industry for what a safe and autonomous future can look like.”




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/AI platform to enable its more than 50 industry partners, including the majority of global automotive OEMs. From consumer vehicle programs with Volvo Cars and Mercedes Benz to technology partnerships including NVIDIA and Mobileye, Luminar is poised to be the first automotive technology company to enable next-generation safety and autonomous capabilities for global production vehicles. For more information please visit 


Mobileye (Nasdaq: MBLY) leads the mobility revolution with its autonomous driving and driver-assistance technologies, harnessing world-renowned expertise in computer vision, artificial intelligence, mapping, and data analysis. Since its founding in 1999, Mobileye has pioneered such groundbreaking technologies as REM™ crowdsourced mapping, True Redundancy™ sensing, and Responsibility Sensitive Safety (RSS). These technologies are driving the ADAS and AV fields towards the future of mobility – enabling self-driving vehicles and mobility solutions, powering industry-leading advanced driver-assistance systems and delivering valuable intelligence to optimize mobility infrastructure. To date, more than 150 million vehicles worldwide have been built with Mobileye technology inside. In 2022 Mobileye listed as an independent company separate from Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), which retains majority ownership. For more information, visit 


Polestar (Nasdaq: PSNY) is the Swedish electric performance car brand determined to improve society by using design and technology to accelerate the shift to sustainable mobility. Headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, its cars are available online in 27 markets globally across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Polestar plans to have a line-up of five performance EVs by 2026. Polestar 2, the electric performance fastback, launched in 2019. Polestar 3, the SUV for the electric age, launched in late 2022. Polestar 4, the SUV coupé transformed, is launching in phases through 2023 and into 2024. Polestar 5, an electric four-door GT and Polestar 6, an electric roadster, are coming soon.

The Polestar 0 project supports the company’s ambitious goal of creating a truly climate neutral production car by 2030. The research initiative also aims to create a sense of urgency to act on the climate crisis, by challenging employees, suppliers and the wider automotive industry, to drive towards zero. For more information, visit 


This press release contains statements that are not historical facts, but rather forward looking statements within the meaning of Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include those that address activities, events or developments that Polestar or its management believes or anticipates may occur in the future, including further developments regarding the integration of Luminar LiDAR into Mobileye Chauffeur into Polestar vehicles and the development of safe autonomous driving systems. All forward-looking statements are based upon our current expectations, various assumptions and data available from third parties. Our expectations and assumptions are expressed in good faith and we believe there is a reasonable basis for them. However, there can be no assurance that such forward-looking statements will materialize or prove to be correct as forward-looking statements are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual future results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the future results, performance or achievements expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those set out in the forward-looking statements, including potential issues with the Luminar LiDAR or Mobileye Chauffeur technologies and the development of safe, eyes-off, hands-off driving with autonomous driving systems. For any forward-looking statements contained in this or any other document, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and we assume no obligation to update publicly or revise any such statements in light of new information or future events, except as required by law.


Polestar 4 To Integrate Luminar LiDAR with Mobileye Chauffeur

 The Luminar Q3’23 Business Update Press Release and Shareholder Letter are now available on our Investor website:


Founder and CEO Austin Russell and CFO Tom Fennimore will host a video webcast, featuring a brief business update followed by a live Q&A session.

What: Video webcast featuring quarterly business update, Q3 financials and live Q&A

A live webcast of the event will be available on Luminar’s Investor site at 

. A replay of the webcast will be available following the presentation.


Luminar Provides Business Update and Third-Quarter 2023 Financials

Luminar (Nasdaq: LAZR), a leading global automotive technology company, today announced it will provide its quarterly business update and financials for the third quarter of 2023 following the close of the market on Wednesday, November 8, 2023. Luminar will pilot a new format in this update, simultaneously releasing a shareholder letter and press release in place of prepared remarks on the call. This will leave the majority of the call time open for Q&A from analysts, institutional investors, and retail investors on the SAY platform. The shareholder letter will detail the status of Luminar’s business milestones; LiDAR, semiconductor, and AI products and developments; and the company’s financials and outlook.

In addition to the new quarterly format, Luminar is now leveraging its corporate communications channel to provide regular updates and commentary on major business milestones and developments. To be added to the Investor Relations email distribution list, please sign up at 

. All associated emails will be concurrently published and archived on the Luminar IR website.

For the quarterly business update, institutional shareholders can submit questions to be addressed on the call by emailing 

. Starting on Monday, October 30 at 1:00 p.m. PDT (4:00 p.m. EDT), verified retail shareholders can submit and upvote questions by visiting 

https://app.saytechnologies.com/luminar-2023-q3

. Both means of submitting questions will remain open through the duration of the webcast on Wednesday, November 8, 2023, and a broader selection of submitted questions will be answered during the business update call. On that day, at 1:00 p.m. PDT (4:00 p.m. EDT), the company will issue a press release and the shareholder letter. At 2:00 p.m. PDT (5:00 p.m. EDT), Luminar Founder and CEO Austin Russell and CFO Tom Fennimore will host a webcast primarily consisting of a live Q&A session.


 Webcast featuring third quarter 2023 financials, business update and live Q&A

 The webcast will be available live on Luminar’s Investor site at 

https://www.luminartech.com/quarterlyreview.

 A replay of the webcast will be available following the presentation.



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/AI platform to enable its more than 50 industry partners, including the majority of global automotive OEMs. From consumer vehicle programs with Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz to technology partnerships including NVIDIA and Mobileye, Luminar is poised to be the first automotive technology company to enable next-generation safety and autonomous capabilities for global production vehicles. For more information please visit www.luminartech.com.



Luminar To Pilot New Update Formats; Next Quarterly Review on Nov 8th

Last Friday, Luminar announced that we recently passed a critical “

” audit process, or R@R, for Volvo Cars in our high volume facility in Mexico. Successful completion of R@R is required by all automakers in order to demonstrate start of production (SOP) readiness. Luminar’s successful completion of this particular R@R audit marks a critical achievement in advance of SOP, and the precursor to the launch of the Volvo EX90 featuring Luminar as standard on every vehicle.

What is a “Run at Rate” audit process?

Updates

Videos

Luminar Starts Production for Volvo Cars

#RisingAuto R7 Electric Car with Luminar Lidar

Automatic Emergency Steering (AES) Demo

Industry news

Polestar 3's Lidar Aims to Save Your Life Like Bullet Time Saved Neo in The Matrix

Robotaxis Are More Than a Decade Away, Says Luminar’s CEO Austin Russell

Luminar’s Lidar Technology Will Dethrone Tesla in the Driverless Car Race

Nissan ramps up self-driving programme with Luminar lidar tech