Luminar & Plus Partner to Provide Assisted Driving Software to Commercial Vehicle OEMs

Luminar and Plus, a global provider of highly automated driving and fully autonomous driving solutions, have announced a partnership to advance automated driving and safety systems for commercial vehicle manufacturers. Under the agreement, Luminar will be the exclusive provider of mid- to long-range lidar for PlusDrive, Plus’s assisted driving system for commercial vehicles.

In parallel, Plus will be the exclusive third-party provider of AI-based enhanced driver assist software for Luminar’s solution for commercial vehicle OEMs.

The two companies will also aim to collaborate on Luminar’s commercial vehicle insurance program, high definition mapping, and trucking sensor integration called Blade.

Luminar’s Iris lidar is an automotive grade sensing solution that enables high-performance, long-range detections. 

Its lidar is capable of seeing as far as 600 meters ahead.

PlusDrive uses components such as lidar, radar, and cameras from award-winning manufacturers to see 360 degrees around the vehicle and hundreds of meters ahead. 

Luminar Founder and CEO, Austin Russell, says: “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.”

“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. 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,” adds David Liu, CEO and Co-Founder at Plus.

Silicaon Valley-based Plus’s open autonomy technology platform is already powering vehicles in commercial use today.