Luminar, which makes sensors for autonomous vehicles, said Monday it was selling itself in a deal valued at $3.4 billion via a SPAC merger with Gores Metropoulos. Volvo and the tech mogul Peter Thiel are also chipping in.
Luminar makes lidar sensors, which bounce lasers off objects to help self-driving cars sense their surroundings, at much cheaper rates than many of its competitors. "Eight years ago, we took on a problem to which most thought there would be no technically or commercially viable solution," Russell said in, referring to building a less-expensive but safer system for self-driving cars known as lidar. "We worked relentlessly to build the tech from the ground up to solve it and partnered directly with the leading global automakers to show the world what's possible.