Daimler Truck AG and the provider of lidar hardware and software technology Luminar Technologies, Inc. will cooperate more closely. The aim is to bring highly automated trucks (SAE Level 4) in series to the roads worldwide. Initially, the focus will be on long-haul applications on US highways. Daimler Trucks in Stuttgart (Germany), its US subsidiary Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) and Torc Robotics and the experts from Luminar will work closely together to further develop Luminar's lidar technology for highway-relevant speeds. This concerns in particular the object recognition, the corresponding data processing and the performance of the entire system. To strengthen the partnership, Daimler Trucks has acquired a minority stake in Luminar.
Peter Vaughan Schmidt, Head of the Autonomous Technology Group at Daimler Trucks: "Luminar has pioneered the development of a critical technology to bring automated vehicles to the road. The company has unique technologies for object detection at long distances and at high speeds on highways. It is our common goal to enable the safe use of highly automated trucks and thus contribute to the further development of the entire industry".
