Luminar announced its collaboration with Autonomous Intelligent Driving GmbH (AID) to provide forward-facing high fidelity and long-range LiDAR technology and for AID’s first fully autonomous deployments in 2021. AID is the urban autonomous driving technology supplier for the Volkswagen Group, including brands like VW, Audi, and Porsche.

After launching in March last year, AID tapped Luminar as its first partner in June.

“Having started out just last year, our aim is to work with the best brands within the industry to accelerate our vision that will be realized across the entire VW Group,” said AID´s Chief Technology Officer, Alexandre Haag. “Perception remains a bottleneck today for autonomous mobility, and we quickly worked to find the most powerful sensors to make the perception task easier. That’s where Luminar comes in—the technology is clearly above the pack in terms of range and density, which is important for solving the most challenging problems in autonomy.”

AID is currently testing its fleet on roads in Munich, with Luminar sensors powering its forward-facing high-fidelity and long-range perception. The company says it is working on all aspects of software, including machine learning for perception and prediction, localization, trajectory planning, and interfaces. AID uses proprietary software and deep learning-based approaches to process sensing modalities such as LiDAR point clouds, camera pixels, and radar echoes. This perception data models the vehicle’s environment, both near and far, by detecting objects, vehicles, pedestrians, and other challenging obstacles.

“AID is an ideal partner for Luminar with the backing and resources of the world’s largest OEM, while maintaining a fresh software-minded spirit of a high-growth startup,” said Luminar Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Austin Russell. “Together, our teams are able to achieve rapid development with an agile, hands-on approach—combining hardware and software expertise to enable autonomous mobility service by 2021.”