The 25-year-old billionaire building the future of self-driving cars

Austin Russell is the 25-year-old founder and CEO of Luminar, a startup in Silicon Valley that makes LIDAR sensors for self-driving cars. LIDAR technology had been used for short-distance mapping, but Luminar claims to have a functioning LIDAR that works at 250 meters, which is a breakthrough. Luminar recently went public, making Austin today's youngest self-made billionaire. And when it comes to self-driving cars, youth is definitely an advantage -- Austin told me we're still years if not decades away from fully self-driving cars, and there's a lot of work to be done to make them safe, effective, and ubiquitous. That work is racing ahead -- Luminar has deals with Volvo, Audi, Toyota, and others -- but building a complete self-driving car is still a long-term project. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. I'm very excited to talk to you. You are, as far as the last thing I read, the youngest self-made billionaire in America, your company just went public in a SPAC [special purpose acquisitions company]. And come Pi Day, 26. You were born on Pi Day? So, Luminar, it's a company that makes LIDAR sensors. You have a number of deals to supply LIDAR sensors to major automakers. I want to talk about all of that. One thing that I always get frustrated by in origin stories is no one ever really talks about act two. In 2012 you were at Stanford, you had this idea to do LIDAR sensors. I want to talk about act two for a little bit. Just that middle part of going from "I've got a great idea," to "This company is actually up and running and functional." So give me a sense of, at the beginning you were a student at Stanford, you got a Thiel Fellowship from Peter Thiel. What was the next step? Did you sit down and build a LIDAR sensor?