Austin Russell, the founder and CEO of Luminar Technologies, shares his journey in becoming a leader in light/radar technology (LiDAR) for the automotive industry in an interview with will.i.am (entrepreneur and frontman of the Black Eyed Peas). Founding Luminar at the age of 17 in 2012, Austin set out to create the next generation of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) to enhance driving safety and reduce accidents. Luminar’s mission is ambitious, aiming to save 100 million lives and 100 trillion hours over the next century. Austin shares the challenges he faced in his entrepreneurial journey, including his decision to drop out of Stanford University to focus on scaling Luminar. The conversation also touches on the lidar versus camera debate and the complexities of competing with Elon Musk and Tesla, offering valuable insights into the future of automotive technology.
Note: This interview took place in October, 2023 prior to Austin Russell’s bid to buy Forbes fell through.
Chapters:
00:00 will.i.am introduces Austin Russell
01:28 Exploring Austin’s learning process at an early age
6:28 Spending his teens at the Irvine Beckman Laser Institute
8:24 Austin’s decision to drop out of Stanford
11:34 Celebrating tech/engineering in pop culture
14:06 How Austin Russell learned entrepreneur skills
19:10 Renting out “Hacker houses” to fund Luminar
21:08 The challenges to building a company
23:24 Retaining long-term conviction in a rapidly changing world
25:56 Competing with Elon Musk and Tesla
29:15 Why Austin is a skeptic of autonomous vehicles
31:33 LiDAR vs camera-based systems
34:38 Saving 100 million lives and 100 trillion hours
41:24 Partnering with the right automobile manufacturers
44:34 Building in “Stealth Mode”
50:34 How Luminar “rose ahead of the pack”
57:04 Why Austin Russell wanted to acquire Forbes
1:01:16 Will.i.am reflects on Black Eyed Peas’ “Where is the love?”