Aside from Tesla, almost every other major company developing automated driving systems has concluded that lidar sensors are going to be a necessary to creating a robust sensing suite. However, this laser-based technology has been prohibitively expensive until now. Making these sensors commercially viable requires driving down the cost and making them durable enough to survive life on the road. One of the leaders in developing the solid-state sensors needed to achieve these goals is Israeli startup Innoviz which has just announced BMW as its first production customer.