Mercedes-Benz teams up with Luminar on self-driving tech

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San Francisco (Reuters) – Luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz will associate with self-driving sensor maker Luminar Technologies Inc to allow absolutely automated driving on highways for its next-generation automobiles, Luminar’s founder mentioned.

Automakers from Tesla to GM and Volvo have set their eyes on introducing autonomous automobiles, though regulatory and technological challenges stay.

Tech companies reminiscent of Alphabet’s Waymo and Cruise are also creating self-driving taxis or vehicles for business use reminiscent of ride-hailing and supply companies.

Vehicle autonomy “is admittedly going mainstream with Mercedes,” Luminar CEO Austin Russell instructed Reuters, with out disclosing a timeframe for placing the expertise in Mercedes’ automobiles.

He mentioned the 2 would develop “true” autonomy capabilities, together with improved security capabilities reminiscent of computerized braking.

General Motors Co is working with its majority-owned Cruise self-driving unit to introduce a private autonomous automobile by as early as mid-decade, Chief Executive Mary Barra mentioned this month.

“If you need to have the ability to get to actually autonomous capabilities in a shopper automobile, and you must industrialize {hardware}, software program, all of those techniques that come into play. That by the way in which, is totally totally different than the work that the robo-taxi corporations have been working on,” Russell mentioned.

He mentioned it’s a problem to mass produce lidars and ensure they’re strong sufficient to fulfill stringent necessities from automakers.

“It is a totally totally different type of enterprise of going from a science and expertise enterprise to automotive company.”

Lidars, which use laser gentle pulses to measure the gap between the sensor and the goal object, are extensively seen as important to attaining full autonomous driving. But Tesla has shunned the sensor, saying it’s costly and pointless.

Volvo Cars and Luminar mentioned earlier this month that they’ll put a hands-free driving system in an upcoming electrical sport utility automobile.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Kim Coghill)



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