Mercedes-Benz has joined forces with Luminar, an American tech company working on lidar technology for self-driving cars.
Mercedes-Benz and Luminar to collaborate on technology for self-driving cars. The two companies announced this on Friday. Luminar will soon supply lidar technology to Mercedes-Benz and will provide support for its implementation in the brand’s cars. In turn, Mercedes-Benz supports Luminar with the help of data obtained to accelerate the development of this technology. Luminar has been on the radar of major car manufacturers for some time. Almost two years ago, Volvo also partnered with the company for lidar technology for the upcoming generation of models on the SPA2 basis.
Markus Schäfer (pictured right), the technical chief of Mercedes-Benz, explains the choice for Luminar: “Luminar fits perfectly into our existing partnerships with leading and innovative tech companies. With the achievement of the SAE Level 3 standard for automated driving, Mercedes-Benz has already reached an important milestone. I am absolutely convinced that partnerships will only fuel our ambitions about what we want to achieve in the future. Collaboration is an essential part of Mercedes-Benz’s strategy. I am very pleased to have Austin Russell and Luminar on board as partners.” The Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS are anticipating this development and will be equipped with Drive Pilot as early as this year, enabling Level 3 autonomous driving, if permitted by local legislation.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl