Volvo Is Using Luminar's Lidar to Build Self-Driving Cars

The key technical hurdle standing between you and your truly self-driving car is a double-decker: the car needs to see its surroundings, and it needs to understand them, too. And today, Volvo announced a move that could help it clear both of those barriers: It has struck a deal with lidar maker Luminar, investing an undisclosed amount in the startup through its recently launched venture capital fund. Just about every player in the autonomous driving space agrees lidar--which builds a 3-D map of its surroundings by firing millions of laser pulses every second and measuring how long they take to bounce back--is a vital sensor. The trouble is that it's a relatively young technology, and it has taken a while for manufacturers to find the right mix of range, resolution, reliability, and cost. The biggest player in this space, Velodyne (which made the first lidar specifically for driving in 2005), sells its most capable sensor for $75,000.