Lidar maker Luminar announces 'multibillion dollar' expansion of its deal with Mercedes-Benz

Lidar shaper Luminar said Wednesday that Mercedes-Benz volition incorporated its sensors and bundle successful a "broad range" of vehicles starting mid-decade, successful a important enlargement of an ongoing concern betwixt the 2 companies.

Under the expanded deal, Mercedes-Benz volition incorporated the adjacent mentation of Luminar's Iris lidar into an upcoming partially automated driving strategy that volition beryllium made disposable connected galore upcoming Mercedes models. Mercedes' caller strategy volition let expanded hands-free cognition during road driving astatine speeds up to 130 kilometers per hr (81 miles per hour), arsenic good arsenic enhanced driver-assist features successful municipality environments.

Luminar's shares jumped much than 12% pursuing the announcement.

"We are present acceptable to alteration the broadest standard deployment of this exertion successful the industry," Luminar CEO Austin Russell said. "Mercedes' standards for conveyance information and show are among the highest successful the industry, and their determination to double down connected Luminar reinforces that commitment."

The woody builds connected 1 announced by the 2 companies successful January 2022, successful which Mercedes-Benz said it would incorporated Luminar lidar successful upcoming high-end models.

"In a archetypal step, we person introduced a Level 3 strategy successful our top-line models," said Markus Schäfer, Mercedes-Benz's main exertion officer, referring to past year's woody with Luminar. "Next, we privation to instrumentality precocious automated driving features successful a broader standard wrong our portfolio."

Luminar didn't disclose the expected accumulation volumes, but the institution did picture it arsenic a "multibillion dollar" enlargement of the earlier deal, and a Luminar spokesperson told CNBC that this caller woody is "more than an bid of magnitude bigger" than past year's woody with Mercedes-Benz.

Luminar volition unveil the next-generation mentation of its Iris lidar strategy erstwhile it reports its fourth-quarter and full-year results connected Tuesday.

—CNBC's Michael Wayland contributed to this report.