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
