How Luminar's doomed Volvo deal helped drag the company into bankruptcy

In early 2023, Luminar was riding high. After going public during the pandemic and scoring a key deal with Volvo, the company had added Mercedes-Benz and Polestar as customers of its “life-saving” lidar sensors. Founder and CEO Austin Russell called it an “inflection point,” as Luminar prepped to have those sensors integrated into the first production vehicles.Volvo in particular was all-in on the technology. The Swedish automaker, which spent decades building a brand around the idea of making the safest ca ...