MicroVision Turns $33M Luminar deal into trucking LiDAR expansion
Key takeaways
- Unfortunately for many, the economics never panned out.
- What survived, according to MicroVision’s leadership, was something more valuable: the infrastructure, algorithms and talent that now form the foundation of what the company calls LiDAR 2.0.
- “The mindset of Silicon Valley was to focus on performance: deliver the highest performance system and solution that you can give.
Micro Vision Turns $33M Luminar deal into trucking Li DAR expansion (Photo: Thomas Wasson/Freight Waves) Thomas Wasson Sat, May 16, 2026 at 8:00 PM GMT+7 4 min read MVIS LAS VEGAS — The automated driving gold rush of the past decade produced hundreds of companies chasing self-driving trucks and robotaxis. Unfortunately for many, the economics never panned out. Things like billion-dollar development costs, expensive sensor suites and unsustainable business models led to flash-in-the-pan announcements that quietly faded.
What survived, according to MicroVision’s leadership, was something more valuable: the infrastructure, algorithms and talent that now form the foundation of what the company calls LiDAR 2.0.
“The mindset of Silicon Valley was to focus on performance: deliver the highest performance system and solution that you can give. And then over time, volumes will come and prices go down,” said Greg Scharenbroch, vice president of global engineering at MicroVision. “But that’s not really what happened.”