The company's headquarters and main research and development facilities are in Orlando, Florida; a second major office is located in Palo Alto, California.
Shortly afterward, Jason Eichenholz joined the company in Orlando as chief technology officer[2] and co-founder.
[4] Russell's goal was to develop lidar technology with improved resolution and range[4] by having Luminar fabricate many components in-house, rather than relying on off-the-shelf devices.
[8] This moved the lidar signal out of the range of visible light, making it safe for human eyes even at higher power levels.
[5] Luminar's infrared range can be used at power levels 40 times those permitted for the standard wavelength without endangering eyesight,[6][7] increasing its resolution, especially at distances over 200 meters.
Luminar's lidar for Volvo is the approximate size of a VHS, optimized for highway driving, and integrated into a car's roof just above the windshield.
[33] Also in March 2021, SAIC Motor announced it would use Luminar sensors and Sentinel software to provide autonomous functions in its "R brand" line of vehicles.
[36] In April 2021, Luminar expanded its business into aviation, partnering with Airbus subsidiary UpNext to test how lidar can be used to facilitate autonomous flight[37] and improve safety conditions for helicopters and other fixed-wing aircraft.
[39][40] The next month, Pony.ai, a self-driving vehicle company, announced that Luminar's Iris lidar systems would be used in its next generation of robotaxis.
[47] This acquisition has brought all three key technology pillars, ASICs, photodiodes and lasers in house and completed vertical integration of the core components of the lidar transceiver.
[4] Luminar's devices use indium gallium arsenide for their chips, rather than the conventional silicon,[5][7] so that the sensors can operate at 1,550 nanometers and capture light more efficiently[55] and the lasers can be implemented on the same substrate as the computational element.
[4] To reduce the price of its sensors, Luminar engineered them to minimize the amount of expensive indium gallium arsenide required.
Every 100 meters of vision gives a vehicle traveling at 70 miles per hour an additional three seconds to react to objects it detects.
[56] At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2020, Luminar showcased Hydra, a lidar sensor offered to automakers for a recurring fee.
[57] Hydra is marketed to companies creating Level 3 and 4 autonomous vehicles in which automation can take over all driving functions under most or all circumstances.
[58] Hydra is also capable of advanced interlacing and adaptive scanning that increases effective resolution at higher frame rates.
On its website,[67] the company also states for Iris "2 axis scanning mirrors with 120° x 28° FoV, scans only the laser rather than spinning the whole lidar device" as well as "An In-house custom mixed signal ASIC with better performance for significantly less cost than complex ADC chips", "Detecting dark objects at night up to 250m away", "And a maximum range of 600m".
According the article, Iris+ should offer a slimmer profile for more seamless integration into EV rooflines compared to its predecessor and should have already begun shipping to a “lead customer”.
However, on February 28, 2023, Luminar announced[69] the following specification changes compared to Iris (without "+"): "3X Performance (Range X Resolution), 20% Slimmer Profile".
[66] Until 2023, Luminar has not generated positive cash flows from operating activities and has an accumulated deficit of $1.3 billion as of December 31, 2022.
Other locations are Cayman Islands, Israel, China, Germany (Munich),[73] Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Sweden:[66] Luminar's competitors include autonomous vehicle companies like Waymo and lidar companies like Aeva, AEye Inc., Cepton, Innoviz, MicroVision Inc., Ouster, Valeo, or Velodyne Lidar.