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 “lifesaving” 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 safes ...