Mercedes to use Luminar’s lidar systems in cars

Luminar will supply lidar systems to Mercedes, which Mercedes probably wants to use in the EQS and the S-Class to offer level 3 autonomous driving. The car manufacturer will provide Luminar with data again, which should help the company with the development of lidar.

The two companies did not provide any financial details or say which cars the lidar systems should appear in, beyond the mass production and passenger car systems. Presumably it concerns the EQS and the S-Class. Mercedes announced at the end of last year that it had received approval from the German equivalent of the RDW to drive autonomously with these cars at level 3. This approval applies throughout the EU, among other places, but in practice it may only be used on the German highway if the maximum speed is 60 km/h.

This autonomous driving is part of Mercedes’ Drive Pilot package. Cars with this package have a lidar sensor in the front bumper, which maps the environment in front of the car to enable autonomous driving. Luminar will probably supply this sensor. At the end of this year, the two Mercedes models should be for sale with Drive Pilot. As part of the agreement, Luminar will receive data from Drive Pilot cars so that Luminar can improve and update its lidar systems.

In addition to Mercedes, Luminar also works with Volvo, Audi, Nvidia and Intel for passenger cars, and with Daimler for the development of autonomous trucks. Car manufacturers not only use lidar for autonomous driving, but also combine this data with, for example, cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors. Not all car manufacturers are convinced of the need for lidar; Tesla thinks it can also be done with just cameras.

Lidar in a Mercedes S-Class