A Silicon Valley-based company
reveals a move of its Orlando operations into a 50,000-square-foot facility to create a sensor meant to make selfdriving cars safer.
A Silicon Valley-based company last week emerged from a self-imposed “stealth” mode, revealing a move of its Orlando operations into a 50,000-square-foot facility, which will host manufacturing and design of a sensor meant to make self-driving cars safer.
More than half of Luminar Technologies’ roughly 150 employees work in Orlando, with a large number at its Portola Valley, Calif., headquarters.
“We want to leverage the capability of Orlando … and bring a little bit of Silicon Valley here,” said Jason Eichenholz, Luminar’s Orlando-based chief technology officer. “There are a lot of advantages and fundraising ability tied to being in California. But we are spending the money here and using the talent here to build our systems.”
Eichenholz, who has lived in Orlando since 1993, came on board in 2016 when Luminar acquired his company Open Photonics for an undisclosed amount.
He had worked in an unofficial capacity with the company since 2014, he said.
Luminar plans a 10,000-unit run in Orlando for its system for autonomous vehicles — which is lidarbased, meaning that it relies on laser lights to detect objects in much the same way radar relies on radio waves. Four autonomous vehicle manufacturers have ordered test versions.
Luminar’s new facility, which is at the University of Central Florida’s Research Park, is a jump from its previous 11,000-square-foot home.
Chester Kennedy, CEO of an emerging high-tech sensor research facility in Kissimmee called BRIDG, said Luminar emerging from stealth mode is exactly why his organization could thrive in Central Florida.
“We exist to provide the enabling infrastructure to help entities like this get their products through the development cycle and into production,” said Kennedy, a former Lockheed Martin executive.
The more than $70 million BRIDG project recently marked the grand opening of its 109,000-square-foot facility on the former Judge Farm property in Kissimmee.
“There is a lot happening here,” he said. “This is a capability we are bringing that will be relevant.”
Luminar, which started in 2012, recently announced that it had raised $36 million from various investors.
The company has loaded its staff with former employees of the U.S. military branches, as well as NASA and Lockheed Martin.
“Driving down a highway is easy, because 99 percent of the cases a self-driving car would encounter is pretty easy,” Eichenholz said. “But that last 1 percent, that’s really hard. Having a car that is 99.99 percent effective is simply not an option.”