Autonomous vehicle startup Plus is partnering with automotive LiDAR firm Luminar on trucking, the companies announced June 6.
Under the agreement, Orlando-based Luminar will be the exclusive provider of mid- to long-range LiDAR for PlusDrive, Plus’s factory-installed assisted driving system for commercial vehicles.
Specifically, Luminar will contribute its Iris LiDAR, which has a 120-degree horizontal field of view, camera-like resolution of up to 300 points per square degree, the ability to detect dark objects at night up to 250 meters away, and a maximum range of 600 meters. In addition to its use in numerous consumer vehicles, Iris meets the performance, robustness, and reliability requirements for class 8 commercial trucks, the heaviest class.
“The partnership between Luminar and Plus unlocks the tremendous business value of next-generation safety and highly automated driving systems for vehicle manufacturers and fleets alike,” David Liu, CEO and Co-Founder at Plus, said in a statement. “Luminar will enable PlusDrive to achieve new heights in sensing at further distances and at highway speeds. This will enable the scalable commercialization of driver-in technology today and accelerate our customers’ path to full autonomy tomorrow.”
At the same time Plus will be the exclusive third-party provider of artificial intelligence-enhanced driver assist software for Luminar’s solution for commercial vehicles.
PlusDrive, which enables supervised autonomy, is already commercially available, and used to deliver freight by some of the largest fleets in the world today. PlusDrive uses components such as LiDAR, radar, and cameras to see 360 degrees around the vehicle and hundreds of meters ahead. The AI-based software processes the data, predicts the behavior of surrounding vehicles, and then safely maneuvers the vehicle. It automatically handles stop-and-go traffic, lane changes, lane merges, nudging when next to an oversized vehicle, and staying centered in the lane while the driver remains alert and attentive. New driving features are continuously added via over-the-air software updates.
“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,” Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell said in a statement. “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.”
Plus and Luminar also aim to collaborate on Luminar’s commercial vehicle insurance program, high-definition mapping, and trucking sensor integration called Blade.
Previously, Silicon Valley-based Plus announced a number of other collaborations that marked its advancing position in autonomous driving industry. For example, Amazon has installed PlusDrive units on their trucks, and are currently operating them on public roads across the United States.
However, Plus has also faced challenges. In 2021, Plus revealed plans to go public in a deal that valued the company at $3.3 billion. The startup would have merged with Hennessy Capital, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) — such mergers are an increasingly popular way for companies to go public, with autonomous technology startups Aurora recently going public via a SPAC merger. However, Plus and Hennessy Capital called off the deal that year.
