Lots Of Luminar

Luminar has been busy with a lot of announcements. Today, they reported preliminary (unaudited) 2020 financial results. 2020 revenue was $14 million, 2021 revenue is projected at $25–30 million, and the “forward-looking order book” is $1.3 billion. That’s an amazing growth curve, so much so that I’d like to understand the timeline and certainty of that $1.3 billion order book.

They also announced a big win this morning with SAIC, the Chinese automotive giant. SAIC will put Luminar’s Iris sensors in a large segment of its future vehicles.

Yesterday, Luminar published a high-quality 4-minute YouTube video entitled, “The Path to Series Production: Q1 Update.” That term — “series production” — is a phrase Luminar CEO Austin Russell emphasizes frequently, distinguishing Luminar from competitors who are still largely working on pilot projects with automakers.

Last week, Luminar held a joint event with Zenseact CEO Ödgärd Andersson to announce their partnership on full-stack self-driving software. Zenseact is Volvo’s self-driving spin-out, and Volvo is Luminar’s first and soonest major customer.

For all that, Luminar shares ended the day down about 4%. Tough crowd, Wall Street.

Originally published at http://davidsilver.blog on March 18, 2021.