vehicle-safety
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Les Schwab Tire Centers
A two-person Oregon tire shop became a 600-plus-store network by treating the awkward minutes after a flat as its real product. Now Les Schwab is taking that service ritual east, one acquired shop and free rotation at a time.
Teradar
Teradar is a Boston deep-tech company building the first commercial sensor that sees using the terahertz band of the electromagnetic spectrum - the slice between microwave and infrared. Its solid-state Modular Terahertz Engine combines radar's ability to punch through rain, fog and snow with resolution approaching that of lidar, claiming up to 20x the detail of today's automotive radar with no moving parts. Founded in 2020 and out of stealth in November 2025 with a $150M Series B, Teradar is working with eight global automakers and Tier-1 suppliers and aims to put its sensor in a production vehicle by 2028.
Luminar Technologies
Luminar Technologies is an automotive lidar and perception company founded by teenage Thiel Fellow Austin Russell. It built 1550nm lidar sensors and software designed to give passenger cars, trucks and robotaxis long-range, high-resolution sight in the dark, winning production deals with Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and Polestar and partnerships with NVIDIA and Mobileye. After a 2020 SPAC debut at a roughly $3.4B valuation, mounting losses, a 2025 CEO ethics inquiry that removed Russell, and the loss of its anchor Volvo contract pushed the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2025.