Luminar Sentinel AI Software launched for Automotive Development
Today Luminar, a leading global automotive technology company, announced it is launching Sentinel, its full-stack software suite, following five years of breakthrough developments in Software and AI systems.
The Sentinel solution enables automakers to accelerate development of advanced safety and autonomous functionality on vehicles, and includes Proactive Safety, Perception, 3D Mapping and Localization, Simulation, and Dynamic LiDAR features. The first shipments occurred this week, and are planned to be delivered to top automakers in the third quarter of this year.
Luminar’s Sentinel suite is a solution currently in-development to enable advanced safety and autonomous functionality with automakers, leveraging Luminar’s LiDAR hardware and AI-based software technologies developed primarily in-house by its software teams in Silicon Valley and Munich, Germany, with support from 3rd party software partners including Scale AI, Applied Intuition, and Civil Maps, which Luminar acquired in 2022.
Sentinel differs from full-stack autonomous software solutions from other companies that develop software for driverless robo-taxis. Luminar’s development has focused from the beginning on giving automakers the toolkit of capabilities outlined above to implement next generation safety and autonomous capabilities for consumer production vehicles. With the launch, Sentinel is targeted to be assessed by and integrated into automaker software development efforts.
A recent comprehensive research report by Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies, demonstrated that cars equipped with Luminar LiDAR and a development version of Sentinel software showed dramatic safety enhancements and a reduction by as much as 40% in accident severity. Details from the Swiss Re study can be found here. Luminar’s foremost goal is improving safety; however, Luminar, automakers, and end consumers can capitalize on the insurance savings to be realized with the safety and damage-reduction benefits of its technology. Luminar expects to monetize some of the benefits internally by launching its own packaged insurance product to automakers and end consumers.
“People know Luminar for pioneering LiDAR systems for global production vehicles, but since 2017 we have also been building next-generation AI-based software for improved safety and autonomy,” said Austin Russell, Founder and CEO of Luminar. “The majority of major automakers don’t currently have a software solution for next-generation assisted and autonomous driving systems. Our launch couldn’t be more timely with the new NHTSA mandate for next-generation safety in all US production vehicles by 2029, and as of today, we’re the only solution we know of that meets all of these requirements. This gives us the opportunity to dramatically expand our content value per vehicle in a high-margin capacity.”
Sentinel was first previewed by Luminar as a prototype in 2021 with a fraction of its current capabilities. The Sentinel software included in the kits is in continuous development, with the intent to be evaluated by automakers and technology companies for potential integration into future advanced safety and autonomous driving programs. Sentinel is built to be compatible with almost any consumer and commercial vehicle, including both combustion engine and electric drive train models.
