Intro

Innoviz CEO Omer Keilaf believes the LIDAR market is down to its final players—and that Innoviz has already won its seat.

In this conversation, we cover the Level 4 gold rush sparked by Waymo, why stalled Level 3 programs are suddenly accelerating, the technical moat that separates L4-grade LIDAR from everything else, how a one-year-old startup won BMW, and why Keilaf thinks his competitors are already out of the race.

Omer Keilaf founded Innoviz in 2016. Today it's a publicly traded Tier 1 supplier to BMW, Volkswagen, Daimler Truck, and other global OEMs.

Chapters
  00:00 Introduction
  00:17 Why Start a LIDAR Company in 2016?
  01:32 The Personal Story Behind Innoviz
  03:12 Transportation Is Still Our Biggest Daily Risk
  04:28 The 2012 Spark: Xbox Kinect and 3D Sensing
  06:32 From Mobile to Automotive: Finding the Right Platform
  07:54 "I Didn't Know What LIDAR Was, But I'd Do It Better"
  08:19 How a One-Year-Old Startup Won BMW
  10:04 Surviving the First Product
  11:23 From Tier 2 to Tier 1: The Volkswagen Win
  13:47 Lessons Learned Scaling Through Partners
  14:45 The SPAC Decision: A Wake-Up Call from a Competitor
  16:42 From 200 LIDAR Companies to a Handful
  17:27 NREs: How Tier 1 Status Funds R&D
  18:44 Why Automotive-First Is the Right Strategy
  19:45 Consolidation Patterns: Cameras, Radars, Airbags
  20:31 "The Music Has Stopped"
  21:07 Non-Automotive: Underserved Markets
  23:51 Working with Secretive OEMs
  25:27 The Press Release They Tried to Stop
  26:42 CES 2025: 85% of Meetings Were Level 4
  27:40 Why Level 3 Programs Are Suddenly Accelerating
  28:33 The EV/ADAS Coupling Problem
  29:49 Design Is Everything: The Holy Grail Is Behind the Windshield
  31:13 The Three-Year RFQ: Grill → Roof → Windshield
  32:32 Innoviz3: Small Enough for Behind-the-Windshield
  34:40 Innoviz2 for L4, Innoviz3 for Consumer L3
  36:38 What's the Real Difference Between L2, L3, and L4 LIDAR?
  38:51 The Mud Test: Why L4 Demands 100% Availability
  40:50 "We're the Only LIDAR Designed for Level 4"
  42:52 Patents and the Maslow Pyramid of Autonomy
  44:15 Non-Automotive Markets: Agriculture, Mining, Security
  46:15 Closing