An Interview with Innoviz CEO Omer Keilaf about current LiDAR market dynamics

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