Last week we announced that we signed a strategic customer agreement with Plus to support Plus’s plan to equip at least 1,000 long-haul trucks using PlusDrive systems equipped with Ouster digital lidar sensors. Plus is a leading developer of automated truck technology and is the first company to start mass production of an automated trucking system, PlusDrive. Plus is partnered with the largest shippers, carriers, and truck makers in the world, including the world’s largest heavy truck manufacturer, FAW, to deploy automated trucks powered by Plus’s automated driving system.
Our multi-year deal includes a commitment by Plus to purchase at least 2,000 sensors, as Plus moves to ramp up the deployment of tens of thousands of trucks across the United States, China and Europe. We have been working with Plus for years and are thrilled to see their rapid progress.
“Lidar is a critical sensing modality to include in our sensor suite in order to develop the safest automated trucks,” said Shawn Kerrigan, COO and co-founder of Plus. “As we start to deploy our automated driving system commercially this year, we need a lidar partner with cutting-edge technology that is high performing, reliable, and of production quality that is immediately available at scale. Ouster delivers on all of those requirements.”
Scaling up our lidar production
Plus today announced they have raised $200M in new funding and shared that they have over 10,000 units of pre-orders for their product. They plan to aggressively increase the deployment of their solution over the next five years. We are also proud to share that we are now conducting the majority of our sensor production at our contract manufacturer, Benchmark Electronics, in Thailand. Through our production capacity at this facility, we are geared up to deliver mass production of our sensors today, and are positioned to keep pace with growing customers, like Plus, over the coming years.
Bonus content: Check out Plus’s video of the first autonomous cross-country commercial freight run in the United States.
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