Lasers & Sources

Lidar maker Strobe acquired by General Motors

Oct. 9, 2017

Strobe makes coherent lider for autonomous vehicles and will be folded into Cruise Automation.

Content Dam Lfw En Articles 2017 10 Lidar Maker Strobe Acquired By General Motors Leftcolumn Article Thumbnailimage File

General Motors (Detroit, MI; NYSE:GM) announced that it has acquired Strobe (Pasadena, CA), which makes coherent lider for autonomous vehicles, and will fold it into Cruise Automation, a GM subsidiary dedicated to self-driving vehicles. Financial terms of the deal were not revealed.

“Strobe’s lidar technology will significantly improve the cost and capabilities of our vehicles so that we can more quickly accomplish our mission to deploy driverless vehicles at scale,” said Kyle Vogt, Founder and CEO, Cruise Automation. Julie Schoenfeld, Founder and CEO of Strobe, said, “Strobe’s deep engineering talent and technology backed by numerous patents will play a significant role in helping GM and Cruise bring these vehicles to market sooner than many think.”

Created in 2014, Strobe was spun off from OEwaves (Pasadena, CA), which makes miniature battery-powered atomic clocks and recently worked with UCLA to develop an optical micro-oscillator that could lead in next generation timing, navigation, and sensing applications. In addition to Strobe founder Schoenfeld, Lute Maleki is director and founder--both also founded OEwaves. Other Strobe board members are Tony Tether, who created the self-driving car project at DARPA; Thomas Casey, an expert in sales and M&A; and John Bowers of UC Santa Barbara, who is an expert on silicon photonics integration.

Related: Video of lidar from Luminar

In September, GM said that Cruise Automation has the world’s first mass-producible car designed with the redundancy and safety requirements necessary to operate without a driver. The vehicle will join Cruise’s testing fleets in San Francisco, metropolitan Phoenix, and Detroit.

Source: General Motors

About the Author

Conard Holton | Editor at Large

Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.