TRI Partners with Luminar on Autonomous Vehicle Technology

The Toyota Research Institute (TRI) unveiled its newest autonomous test vehicle, Platform 2.1, featuring sensing technology from Luminar.

“We moved swiftly and early to adopt the Luminar platform into our fleet, and as a result we’re rapidly advancing our program,” said James Kuffner, Chief Technology Officer at TRI. “The level of data fidelity and range is unlike anything we’ve seen and is essential to be able to develop and deliver the most advanced automated driving systems.”

Luminar has scaled up its partnerships since April with a select few companies. TRI is the first company to deeply integrate the new sensing platform into its autonomous vehicle programs.

“As the group defining the future of vehicle autonomy for the largest auto manufacturer in the world, TRI has the greatest opportunity to lead the charge in deploying life-saving self-driving technology at scale,” said Luminar Founder and CEO Austin Russell. “By equipping vehicles with the best quality 3D data, better-than-human perception can finally become a reality — charting the fastest, safest course for full autonomy.”

Luminar’s lidar delivers more than an order of magnitude greater resolution than current sensors and the ability to see dark objects, such as a tires (10 percent reflectivity) at over 200 meters. The sensor also allows resolution to be concentrated where it’s needed most, in real time, enabling the car to clearly see and recognize cars, people, and objects, even at distance.

Toyota Research Institute is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota Motor North America.