One of the most vocal critics of Tesla's camera-based sensors, used for its semi-autonomous driving systems, has been forced to eat humble pie. Not long ago, Luminar Technologies CEO Austin Russell appeared to be on top of the world. In 2020, he took the company he founded in 2012 as a 17-year-old public, becoming the world's youngest self-made billionaire (at the time) in the process. In the same year, his company landed a massive contract to supply Volvo with lidar systems from 2022 onward, and once deliveries to the automaker famous for safety began, he started talking about why rivals - specifically Tesla - could not compete, saying that Elon Musk's company had "no credible path" to true self-driving technology. Whether that was an accurate claim or not, Musk is having the last laugh, as Luminar has just filed for bankruptcy, where Russell is no longer CEO.
What Luminar's CEO Said About Tesla
Luminar
In a November 2022 interview with Top Gear, Russell argued that although the fundamental camera-based systems Tesla favors were "fine," Musk was trying to "cash in [the credibility of a great EV company] on things that don't make any sense [...] when it comes to an assisted autonomous driving perspective." In a nutshell, he was saying that, as good as an optic system might be in many scenarios, lidar and radar can see through fog and dense mist, looking further than any human eye or even any car-mounted camera can. Using all available technology is the only way to be safe, he argued.
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Fundamentally, it's tough to dispute his point of view, which is why the likes of Waymo and automakers such as Volkswagen and Mercedes rely on multiple sources of information, including cameras, lidar, and radar. Granted, even the world's most advanced robotaxis crash, so no system is perfect, but Russell's argument is fair. Unfortunately for Luminar, it appears that Volvo wasn't all that impressed by the tech his company was supplying. More accurately, it was dissatisfied with the supply thereof.
Why Luminar is in Big Trouble
James Riswick/Autoblog
Last month, Volvo had curiously planned to make lidar an optional extra from 2026, but then it said that, "to meet customer demand and due to limited supply of the lidar hardware, production of cars without lidar starts already in 2025." Later, the Swedish automaker clarified, saying it "has decided to remove the lidar sensor from its EX90 and ES90 cars and discontinue its relationship with supplier Luminar," adding that it "made this decision to limit the company's supply chain risk exposure." To be more blunt, Volvo said this decision was "a direct result of Luminar's failure to meet its contractual obligations to Volvo Cars." Luminar responded with a lawsuit against Volvo.
Volvo
Although the company also made deals with Polestar, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and even Tesla, its biggest customer was, by far, Volvo. There were already signs of trouble last year, when Luminar laid off roughly 20% of its workforce, and in May of this year, when Russell suddenly resigned after Luminar's board of directors opened a "code of business conduct and ethics" inquiry against him. As noted by Jalopnik, CFO Thomas Fennimore also resigned after Volvo and Luminar parted ways. Finding a way out of this hole will not be easy, but according to TechCrunch, Russell now wants to buy Luminar; an SEC filing reveals that his new company, Russell AI Labs, intends to buy all of the outstanding shares of Luminar's Class A Common Stock.
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