As it pursues the goal of fully autonomous driving, Tesla has bet entirely on cameras and artificial intelligence, shunning other commonly used tools such as laser detection. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has touted a system built around eight "surround" cameras that feed data into the auto's "deep neural network," according to Tesla's website. But as with so many other things involving Tesla, there is controversy. At the giant Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Luminar Technologies has set up a demonstration of two autos moving at about 30 miles per-hour towards the silhouette of a child. A car utilizing Luminar's lidar, a laser-based system, stops in advance of trouble, while its rival, a Tesla, careens into the mannequin.

Volvo will debut "Ride Pilot," its take on a Tesla-like autonomous driving feature, in California, the automaker announced on Wednesday during CES 2022. Once it's approved for use on highways, Volvo says it will offer Ride Pilot as a paid subscription add-on for a new electric SUV it plans to reveal later this year. It will later bring the feature to other markets globally. The company worked with Zenseact and LiDAR developer Luminar to create Ride Pilot, and it's currently testing the feature in Sweden. As you might guess from Luminar's involvement, Ride Pilot will utilize LiDAR technology, an approach that puts Volvo at odds with Tesla.

A new young billionaire has taken the mantle as the "world's youngest self-made billionaire" after his self-driving technology company Luminar Technologies Inc. (LAZR) went public in December 2020. Some have taken to calling 26-year-old Austin Russell the "next Elon Musk." Russell has an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion. He was recently featured on Forbes' "40 Under 40" list for 2021 but he really jumped on the tech scene in 2020 due to the success of Luminar. Luminar IPO makes 25-year old Austin Russell one of world's first, and youngest, self-driving billionaires https://t.co/R3fVTTzE2t

"We're seeing 10- to 12-week delivery times for laptops and computing devices," said Sue Workman, chief information officer at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "Those used to take a day or two." For the rapidly approaching fall semester, the school is hustling to equip classrooms with video displays, microphones and other tools so students have the option of taking some classes from home, Ms. Workman said. Orders for both displays and microphones have been delayed, she added. The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team.

The Swedish automaker announces in a press release that the upcoming next-generation electric Volvo XC90 will arrive with state-of-the-art sensors and LiDAR technology. While not mentioned, the next XC90 could continue with the Recharge nomenclature, in line with the other all-electric models, the C40 Recharge and XC40 Recharge. The LiDAR safety and convenience tech, which stands for light detection and ranging, was developed with Luminar. The collaboration between the two was announced last year, making self-driving safer than it sounds. While Volvo takes care of the hardware, and Zenseact and Luminar at the forefront of software, NVIDIA takes care of the autonomous driving computer.

The transaction provided Luminar with the infusion of capital it needed to begin producing lidar sensors that use lasers to measure distances and classify objects for self-driving vehicles at a commercial scale, according to Chief Financial Officer Tom Fennimore. As a public company, however, Luminar must be mindful of how it spends the cash, he added. Luminar has positioned itself in recent years to benefit from the expected rise of autonomous vehicles. It has announced partnerships with car makers including Volvo Cars, which is owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, Daimler AG's trucks business and SAIC Motor Corp. Ltd. to incorporate its sensor technology into self-driving vehicle designs. The Morning Ledger provides daily news and insights on corporate finance from the CFO Journal team.

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?

The CEO of Intel Corp-owned Mobileye on Tuesday laid out plans for a self-driving car system for 2025 that could use house-built lidar sensors rather than units from Luminar Technologies Inc. Luminar shares closed down 17.6 percent after Reuters reported the move. In November, Mobileye signed a supply agreement with Luminar to use its lidar units in the first generation of Mobileye's driverless vehicle fleet. Luminar told Reuters that there has been no change to that agreement and that Luminar has also supplied lidar units for Mobileye development vehicles for nearly two years. Luminar said its units, which are only one part of Mobileye's broader self-driving system costs, are priced at less than $1,000 and exceed Mobileye's cost and performance requirements. Amnon Shashua, CEO of Mobileye and an Intel senior vice president, told Reuters that Mobileye's first generation of full self-driving kits -- which will include Luminar's lidar units along with a range of other chips, sensors and software -- will cost between $10,000 and $20,000.

Luminar founder Austin Russell has become one of the youngest self-made billionaires after his lidar company debuted on public markets on Thursday. Russell, 25, was just 17 when he founded Luminar in 2012. Shares of Luminar rose above $30 a share on Friday, a massive 43 percent gain for the day on top of big gains on Thursday. Luminar has emerged as one of the leading companies in the fast-growing lidar industry. Carmakers are expected to begin offering lidar as an advanced option for their vehicles in the next few years to enable better driver-assistance technology.

Luminar Technologies Inc., which produces sensor technology for self-driving cars, started trading publicly Thursday and made its 25-year-old founder and chief executive a billionaire. Austin Russell began Luminar in 2012 at age 17, when he left Stanford University and accepted a fellowship from the foundation of entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel to develop the company. Mr. Russell will retain 83% of the voting power in Luminar and serve as its chairman. Luminar "spent a huge amount of time just figuring out what was possible," Mr. Russell said. "In some ways, it's awesome and surreal to be a part of this, going public. In other ways, it just makes a lot of sense."