Volkswagen will purchase autonomous driving software and hardware from Israel’s Innoviz Technologies in a $4 billion deal.
The deal has been inked with VW’s CARIAD technologies group and will include components such as laser-based lidar sensors the Volkswagen Group will use for its advanced driver assistance systems and automated vehicles from mid-decade.
“We are thrilled to work with the CARIAD team and be a supplier of LiDAR sensors and perception software to support safe mobility for vehicles launching from the middle of the decade,” Innoviz chief executive and co-founder Omer Keilaf said in a statement. “CARIAD is a leading player in the transformation of the whole automotive space. We are proud to be part of their mission.”
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The deal means Innoviz now has a forward-looking order book valued at $6.6 billion. This deal alone is also worth more than seven times the company’s ~$500 million market valuation.
CARIAD has announced a series of technical partnerships throughout 2022, including with Bosch, Qualcomm, and STMicroelectronics. Volkswagen itself has also previously invested $2.6 billion in U.S. startup Argo AI as part of an arrangement that saw the automaker’s European self-driving unit transferred to Argo.
Meanwhile, Innoviz has received investments from the likes of Magna International and Harman International. It went public via a reverse merger in April 2021 and while it was once valued at as much as $1.6 billion, that has since fallen closer to $500 million.
The technology company says that its advanced LiDAR and perception software can see better than a human driver and reduces the possibilities of errors. Innoviz also has a LiDAR agreement with BMW and speaking with Bloomberg, Keilaf said it is hiring a third-party contractor to manufacture the lidar sensors.
In May, Volkswagen announced that it would use Qualcomm chips for its forthcoming autonomous vehicles.
