Austin Russell’s fascination with high-tech cars began before he was even old enough to drive. He set out to create a safe navigation system for robot-controlled cars. Now, at age 22, Austin’s ambitious ideas are getting a test drive.
Five years ago, teenager Austin Russell co-founded Luminar Technologies. The Silicon Valley startup company is steering the self-driving car industry in a new direction. In April, the business released details about a much-improved sensing technology for autonomous vehicles.
The system uses technology called lidar. Lidar bounces lasers off nearby objects and measures the reflections. With that information, the system builds a 3-D picture of the environment surrounding the car. The technology is similar to radar, which uses radio waves instead of lasers.
Russell calls his version LiDAR. It uses high-resolution infrared lasers—capable of measuring accurately within millimeters even in pitch black darkness. That precision will vastly improve safety for self-driving cars.
The main obstacle at this point isn’t effectiveness. It’s cost. The systems currently cost several thousand dollars each—too pricey for most automobile buyers.
To date, Luminar has raised $36 million in investment capital to move ahead with its LiDAR system. How did this young man generate the cutting-edge technology—and the confidence of financial backers?
According to a Bloomberg article, Russell’s gifts became apparent when he was in elementary school. At age 10, he worked as a consultant software engineer—but his parents refused to buy him his own mobile phone. Tinkering in his garage in Newport Beach, California, he transformed a Nintendo handset into a phone. That was just the beginning of his emerging God-given creativity.
The tech prodigy had filed his first patent by age 17.
Shortly after that, Russell enrolled at Stanford University. But billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel changed Russell’s plans.
Thiel awarded the young inventor a $100,000 grant. He asked Russell to adapt lidar technology for the driverless car market. Russell accepted. He dropped out of Stanford to start Luminar. Almost all of his 150 employees are considerably older than he is. His own father—once a real estate specialist—now works for him as the company’s chief financial officer.
Russell is focusing on developing an inexpensive lidar system that can sell for less than $1,000. It’s a big task: Bring together all elements for a safe, functional, and affordable self-driving system. Then get it to market quickly.
Tony Jordan taught Austin in physics class a few years ago. He remembers the youth as focused, determined, and highly competitive. In Jordan’s opinion, Russell has the ability and the drive to do that job well.
