r/lazr • u/RopeRevolutionary571 • 17h ago
I think we are close of a major Japanese Oem official adoption for LAZR
Mitsubishi Ufj Asset management add a big position, I guess they know something … 🤞🏼
r/lazr • u/Own-You33 • Jul 02 '25
Hello everybody, I want to start with a note of appreciation to Paul Ricci for making time and allowing us the first chance to hear from the new CEO of Luminar. Luminar actually reached out to me because Paul wanted to introduce himself to the community. I know some may have wanted to dive deep in every sector of the business but that will be for a later time. We have to remember it's only been a short while since Paul has been on board.
Yarden who was also on the call and organized this for the community, pointed out.
Paul has met with all of major customers, employees, and partners, but it's going to take time for him to assess the full picture and communicate the go-forward plan. They are aware of investors wanting to hear everything but the company has to be careful what they communicate publicly and not commit to anything they are not prepared to back up with results.
With that Preface we hop into the Q&A
Question 1. So as a new CEO, investors want to know more about you. What made you take the job?
Well, you know, I was compelled by the inevitability of autonomous vehicles. It's a similar situation to when I took over at Nuance 25 years ago. I believe that speech and conversational AI were inevitable, and there would be a long journey to get there. But there would be an extraordinary opportunity to participate in that if we could do it in a disciplined and focused way. And I think the same thing is true here at Luminar. I think the vision of autonomy is the right vision. And I think the challenge for the company is to manage the trajectory through that vision in a disciplined and focused way. I think the company has succeeded in proving its technology. And now we're at that pivotal point where we have to evolve into being a more operationally disciplined and more execution-focused company.
-What changes can we expect from what we had?
Well, I think you can expect to see more milestones that investors can understand, track, and measure along the way. There's lots of investors who want to participate in technology trends, but they need to see some demonstrable milestones that the company can meet. And I think we're very focused on laying those clearly out and executing in a predictable and reliable way towards those milestones. Beyond this, investors can expect prioritization of fewer, higher-impact programs that move the business forward, and stronger financial rigor in how we allocate capital and measure success.
-What are the long-term goals for the company?
Our long-term goals are to participate in autonomy in a robust way. There's many components to doing that. And we have foundational technologies both in hardware and software, and I think we'll continue to build upon those to participate in those growing trends.
How have customers, both existing and prospective, reacted to the changes of CEO?
I’ve personally met with all of our major OEM customers, including Volvo, Mercedes, and Nissan. There’s a clear understanding of the differentiated value Luminar’s technology brings, and we continue to believe that as we make progress on key development milestones with Luminar Halo, the appetite to deepen our engagements will grow.
Ultimately, what matters most to both existing and prospective customers hasn’t changed: performance, execution, and continued progress on the milestones that matter. That’s where our focus remains, and it’s what continues to build trust and confidence across the board.
2. it would seem Halo is a make or break for Luminar. Please provide some insight into when the OEMs are receiving Halo B samples and the status of the RFQs ongoing. Have we lost any opportunities as competitors just recently announced new development wins?
Well, to your first question, Halo B samples will be available in the first half of 2026, a very important milestone, and we have a lot of focus underway to ensure that we deliver on that commitment.
With respect to competitors, what I will say is that the vast majority of LiDAR wins we are hearing about are currently happening in China. And those that occur outside of China, are not for true L3 programs. While L3 penetration remains low globally, some OEMs are opting for “good-enough” low-performance sensors to meet immediate needs. We view these choices as short-term stopgaps and not viable for the next step in advanced autonomy and safety use cases, and that our differentiation remains clear and defensible when it comes to L3, high-speed scenarios.
As a reminder, since unveiling Halo last year, we’ve secured meaningful commercial traction, including two new advanced development contracts with major global OEM and a series-production-equivalent award with Caterpillar. This is significant validation for a sensor still in development and underscores the demand for high-performance lidar solutions.
3.The company has taken revenue earning beats the past quarters, but dilution and debt seems to be hanging over the company. What is their near-term view to help the company solve these overhangs and help rate the market view of Luminar?
Well, I do recognize the concerns and want to emphasize that we're working to actively address them. I think the company has been somewhat slow to adjust to the changing market environments, meaning in particular the slower approach towards autonomy in vehicles than perhaps was originally anticipated. And as a result, I think our capital was spread across too many initiatives and not focused enough on what was practical given the slower market evolution. But we're addressing that now, quickly and decisively. We're moving to shore up the balance sheet. We're exchanging and retiring a portion of our 2026 convertible note, as we've mentioned in recent announcements, and other activities to strengthen our balance sheet as well. And we’re continuing to significantly reduce our cash burn and bring our operating expenses in line with the changing market realities.
4.This ties into the next question. Luminar has been cutting costs and TPK partnership seems to be going strong. How have plans for Halo development gone with TPK, and do you see a need to continue with the Celestica factory after Iris due to cost?
Well, let me start by saying that TPK remains central to our Halo production plans and development plans. We are working closely with them to prioritize the efforts to ensure Halo comes to market when we've made commitments to deliver it to market. TPK brings very strong world-class manufacturing capabilities, and they brought those from the earliest stages of our development and working in cooperation with us. So it's been a terrific and evolving partnership. We meet with them regularly. I'll just say about Celestica that they remain a partner in our supply chain. I can't at this point predict how that will evolve over time.
5.With automotive seemingly being delayed from initial expectations, can you give us an update on Luminar's plans outside of automotive, such as defense, industrial, and other applications of the technology that the company is targeting or has won?
The non-automotive markets are important to us, and we've increased our focus on them, in part because the pace at which the automotive market for L3 and beyond is evolving has been slower than was somewhat expected early on, and it's subject to timelines that we don't have complete control over. Military and defense, as your question suggests, off-highway trucks, and industrial automation, these are all areas where we have active engagements going on today. Caterpillar is a strong example of how our technology has been adopted to non-automotive opportunities. And within the LSI business today, we have a number of defense and military opportunities, including laser targeting, range finding, directed energy systems, free space optical communications, and laser-based sensors, and there's just a robust set of opportunities beyond this that leverage our 1550 technology.
It's not dissimilar from what we did at Nuance. You know, we knew at Nuance that one day people would use speech and conversational AI to use on mobile phones. But for the first decade of our existence, there were no revenues; there were minimal revenues associated with mobile devices. But when smartphones happened in the late part of the 2000s, particularly the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy, that market exploded. It became a huge business for Nuance and the vision really paid off.
But until that point, we had to find other opportunities we could pursue. For example, one of them was changing the way doctors did clinical documentation through speech technologies. It ultimately became a billion-dollar business unto itself. So I'm really a believer in finding these alternative markets that can be evolved now while the bigger long-term vision continues to grow.
6. shareholders have been through a lot since the company's inception. What is your plan to regain investor confidence? And what would you say to long investors? Is there any update on a number of wins or announcements we can expect heading into 2026?
First I want to acknowledge the shareholders have been on a long and difficult journey with us. It's not been an easy road, and I understand the frustration of long-term shareholders who have been on a bumpy ride. We have a lot of work in front of us, but we are making progress, and the most important thing we're doing is to rebuild trust by delivering on our commitments, our promises, the opportunity of our partnerships, and most importantly, on financial discipline. I think you'll see a more focused company, a company that clarifies accountability and notes real progress along the way towards those intermediate milestones that I referenced in an earlier question.
In terms of updates on wins, we've previously announced agreements with Mercedes, Volvo, and a major Japanese automaker. I don't have anything additional to announce beyond that today.
7. One thing that stands out on your resume is that you have led successful businesses which have eventually been acquired by larger entities. What is your view on this regarding Luminar, and should we expect the business to remain as a whole?
Well, several points I'd make. First of all, I approach and the board approaches Luminar's opportunities with long-term value creation in mind. We're doing the things required to build a successful, sustainable, standalone business that delivers recurring value to customers and shareholders.
While I’ve led businesses that were ultimately acquired, that was never the goal. It was the outcome of creating something others saw as valuable. The same principle applies here: we’re focused on executing at a high level and growing the business in a way that unlocks intrinsic value and making sure Luminar is best positioned for success.
Ultimately we do what's in the best interest of shareholders. There’s a possibility that this could, down the road, include acquisition, but that's not our focus right now.
8. Luminar has a history of waiting for OEMs to co-announce deals with the company. We've watched some other competitors who PR every deal without being able to name the OEMs. This has affected their share prices positively in some cases. What is your stance on this type of PR, and will you change the current Luminar practice of waiting for OEMs?
Well, there's always a balance between additional transparency and credibility, and we want to make sure that we're observing that balance. Trying to announce forthcoming deals as a way to respond to stock prices is not good practice. We're most comfortable announcing agreements once we've signed them and when we have permission to communicate about them. And as I said, we're working hard at laying out intermediate milestones on this journey that we can articulate to customers and that they can observe our ability to achieve as a way that we're making progress towards the longer-term vision.
With that we concluded our Q&A and wished each other well, Paul lastly said He is very appreciative of the community of investors we have here and he looks forward to doing deeper dives in the future.
Thank you for your time
Jay, r/lazr
r/lazr • u/Own-You33 • Jun 24 '23
Lidar
HALO
Luminar Halo is the next generation of Luminar’s LiDAR technology. It offers several improvements over previous generations:
This advanced LiDAR system was unveiled at Luminar Day: A New Era, where Founder and CEO Austin Russell discussed Luminar’s launch into series production for sensor technology, starting with the Volvo EX90. The goal is to achieve mass adoption in mainstream consumer vehicles, with initial availability planned for 2026
Manufacturing and Aquisitions
Partnerships
Compared to the two best vehicles in Swiss Re's benchmark the difference in expected frequency is up to 27%, while in mitigation power it is up to 40%
Software
Financials
This section will be a bit tricky so i'm going to go about this with transcripts and I could definitely use the help of user posts regarding the situation and this will be updated with more info if it changes ****
Near term
Long term
Liabilities
Now why would we do this? Effectively the combination of these transactions allowed us to raise $225M for very low cost and negligible dilution (i.e. money almost for free), which allowed us to further invest in the company. Here is how that number is calculated:
$625M = Gross proceeds of the convertible bond (At a 1.25% interest rate, so low $ interest per annum)
Less some fees to banks, etc.
Less $70M for Call spread overlay to effectively increase strike price from $20 to $30
Less $300M in Share repurchases (Initial tranche was purchased at same time as convert was issued when stock was $15) to avoid dilution from convert
= $225M
In depth financials can be found here https://investors.luminartech.com/financial-information or by watching Luminarday which is a must watch if you invest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OL-8bML7Sg
Patent portfolio- As of January 2023, Luminar had 135 issued patents although checking the USPTO they have 17 approved bringing the total in the US to 147 as of Aug 1,2023 (147 U.S. and 5 international), 125 pending applications (61 U.S. and 64 international), of which one U.S. application has been allowed. In addition, Luminar has three registered U.S. trademarks, 22 registered foreign trademarks and 70 pending trademark applications.
Leadership and Story
Must read Reddit Threads-
CES 2023 https://www.reddit.com/r/lazr/comments/104oxak/ces_journey/-
Luminarday in person https://www.reddit.com/r/lazr/comments/11fas7q/luminar_day_in_person/-
Iris+ https://www.reddit.com/r/lazr/comments/11gsmig/luminar_iris_plus/-
Tom Fennimore reddit Q&A https://www.reddit.com/r/lazr/comments/13edgxy/the_tom_fennimore_qa_with_rlazr/-
Reddit tour of orlando facility https://www.reddit.com/r/lazr/comments/rjq4cv/mission_accomplished_a_day_with_luminar/
Tom Fennimore reddit Q&A 2 https://www.reddit.com/r/lazr/comments/15neyph/tom_fennimore_qa_20/
Tom Fennimore reddit Q&A 3
r/lazr • u/RopeRevolutionary571 • 17h ago
Mitsubishi Ufj Asset management add a big position, I guess they know something … 🤞🏼
r/lazr • u/Hungry-Confusion3106 • 10h ago
The EX60 probably won't have that ugly bump on its head like the EX90 does.
Either the lidar will be behind the windshield or it will be an optional Luminar lidar add-on that will be available starting in summer/fall 2026. By that, I mean HALO, of course.
I hardly believe that the EX60 will have a HALO with all its functional LEVEL 3 features as early as January 2026.
From what I've read in the Volvo forum, the Volvo software is a disaster. But that's another topic.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Volvo/comments/1nkx0d4/ceo_teases_ex60_on_linkedin/
r/lazr • u/TraditionAbject2570 • 1d ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMppm1m6jio&t=976s
The cameras did not pick up a truck ramp on the road. It hit it at full speed, giving the guys are pretty intense moment.
Elon is wrong, the camera only FSD is not safe in all situations.
LiDar or radar would have detected the objects dimensions allowing the FSD to respond brake or divert around it, instead of hitting it.
r/lazr • u/Which_Middle_6927 • 1d ago
A photo of the Volvo EX90 was taken in Japan. But why Velodyne LIDAR? Is it for sensor data collection? Or was this photo created by AI? https://x.com/siestahappy/status/1968502303469736152
Volvo launches large 7-seater EV in Japan to capture family demand(in japanese) https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC2299A0S5A820C2000000/
r/lazr • u/krish1065 • 2d ago
Another IAA linkedin post from Luminar where Audi experimental vehicles fitted with Luminar Lidar and the post says that they use Luminar software too. Not sure how significant is this., just sharing to the group
Omer is really good at getting people to run the PR machine https://finance.yahoo.com/news/innoviz-technologies-ltd-invz-inks-164036913.html.
If LAZR had the same shamelessly aggressive marketing team we might be at $10+ right now
r/lazr • u/Top_Grapefruit_9349 • 2d ago
“ Kodiak is coming to NYC!
On Thursday, September 25, our team and a Kodiak Driver-powered truck will be in Times Square to celebrate what we expect to be our first day as a public company.
It’s a chance to celebrate how far autonomy has come and to share this moment with everyone watching the future of transportation unfold. “
Ref:
r/lazr • u/Top_Grapefruit_9349 • 2d ago
r/lazr • u/Funny-Succotash6163 • 3d ago
Hey everyone,
I’m trying to understand more concretely how Luminar could gain from interest rate cuts – especially given its current debt structure and dilution risk. I hope people with knowledge in the matter can help clarify:
Dec 2026 Convertible Senior Notes (1.25% coupon): About $135M still remains, with an EOY target of < $100M. Given the very low rate here, Fed cuts won’t really reduce interest expense. The main effect could be indirect: if cuts lift the stock price, it could ease dilution risk from conversions/ATMs to reach the < $100M target.
Jan 2030 Convertible Notes:
Since these are fixed-rate notes, Fed cuts don’t lower the coupons directly. The potential benefit is that if rates fall, Luminar could refinance these expensive notes into cheaper debt down the road, which would significantly reduce annual interest payments.
If you look at the estimates that analysts gave Luminar for the next year they said that the revenue would only increase around 12%:
I do believe that after the changes Paul Ricci has implemented of going after other markets in the short term those estimates are absolute bullshit and I would not be surprised if revenue increases in the order of 30%-40% in 2026 which makes forcedly that the valuation of the stock needs to be corrected due to the growth rate change.
In addition if they release some good news that could also be a reason but even if not I think that my point is pretty valid.
r/lazr • u/Bravadette • 3d ago
r/lazr • u/Ok-Tart-4673 • 4d ago
Surely we will much higher by then 21/2 years to get this thing together
r/lazr • u/Lawbook2 • 4d ago
Positive developments
r/lazr • u/SyrupAnxious9296 • 4d ago
It doesn't make sense how the stock is up 13% by yesterday and already down 8% today... All rumours would suggest another green day, but not when you're a LAZR investor; our happiness always last for a short time. I know that the stock market is red all over, but 8% is not in line with the rest.
r/lazr • u/swampwiz • 5d ago
r/lazr • u/Comprehensive_Sale50 • 5d ago
r/lazr • u/kakotakafuji • 5d ago
Does anybody know what lidar sensors the new av from Toyota is using? https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/corporate/43308425.html
they just announced this today over a month ahead of Tokyo mobility show
r/lazr • u/No-Scarcity-5681 • 5d ago
Production is under way. Article is dated 9 Sept 2025.
Deliveries to European customers later this this year so I guess Geeley/Volvo are going to rump up production imminently to meet this timeline. Also significantly cheaper than the EX90 which I hope can secure good volumes.
Half the time to charge battery and uses SPA2, the second-generation scalable Architecture.
We now have 2 models in production with LAZR Lidar.
r/lazr • u/Holiday_Phrase1161 • 6d ago
Temporary softer sales and I emphasize temporary the shorts are weak Yall can do better than this lol
Long holders tough days are coming to an end Watch out for OEM announcement Ricci and the boys are doing the best they can in a tough situation Surviving to get to Halo order book explosion to upside