Luminar Expands into Automotive LiDAR with $250 Million in Fundraising

July 15, 2019

William Kucinski

After receiving substantial financial support from institutional and strategic investors, Orlando, Florida-based Luminar Technologies is entering the consumer automotive and commercial trucking markets with Iris, a sensing and perception LiDAR platform that the company had been quietly developing for the last three years. According to Luminar, Iris represents the next major milestone in the industry: 12 of the world’s top 15 automotive companies are working with Iris as part of global self-driving development programs to deliver safe and ubiquitous autonomous transportation.

Iris is slated to launch commercially on production vehicles beginning in 2022 and is the first sensing platform to exceed the essential performance, safety, cost, and auto-grade requirements needed to deliver SAE International-defined Level 3 and 4 autonomy to consumers.

William Kucinski  is content editor at SAE International, Aerospace Products Group in Warrendale, Pa. Previously, he worked as a writer at the NASA Safety Center in Cleveland, Ohio and was responsible for writing the agency’s System Failure Case Studies. His interests include literally anything that has to do with space, past and present military aircraft, and propulsion technology.

Contact him regarding any article or collaboration ideas by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..