Austin Russell, CEO, Luminar. Photo credit: Collision Conf, licensed under CC BY 2.0

The Trucks division of German auto giant Daimler has announced that it’s entered into a strategic partnership with Luminar, a lidar startup that’s on the cusp of a public market debut via the way of a blank-check merger, and has acquired a minority stake in the company under the terms of its partnership. The exact amount Daimler invested in Luminar isn’t disclosed.

Under their new partnership, Daimler will work together with Luminar to develop lidar sensing and perception systems for Daimler’s commercial trucks, with a goal of enabling Level 4 autonomous driving for the trucks. Daimler will initially focus on autonomous highway transit for its commercial trucks.

Along with technology, Daimler and Luminar will also collaborate on autonomous driving safety standards and operating practices.

Daimler’s tie-up with Luminar comes just on the heels of the German automaker partnering with another self-driving company, Waymo. Daimler seems keen on teaming up with other companies to develop its self-driving operations even as the company maintains its own self-driving division with offices in Germany and the US.

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