Coworking with Aaron Jefferson

Coworking is a weekly segment where we spotlight Emerging Tech Brew readers who work with emerging technologies. Click here if you’d like a chance to be featured.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in tech?

I am responsible for driving the company’s product strategy and roadmaps to deliver our product offerings (from lidar up to our full Sentinel solution) at the right time and the right price. A VP of product focuses on aligning the company’s product strategy with the overall business strategy and the market needs and trends. It’s a role that requires a broad knowledge base and experience that ranges from managing the unknowns and uncertainties around emerging tech (like lidar) to understanding the ins and outs of automotive supply chain and pricing dynamics, competitive positioning, and areas of strength for Luminar that help us differentiate.

What’s your favorite emerging tech project you’ve worked on?

There would be two favorites; I’ve been in this space a long time, and all have been exciting. My first new product was the Passive Occupant Detection Systems, [which is] a weight sensor in the front seat to detect small children and enable or disable the airbag, which was mandated by the US. I was there to witness a product go from zero to 100% market share in the span of two years. Next was radar and camera, which I watched grow and helped manage at my previous companies. And the growth of this tech and the amazing engineers I’ve worked with over the years really made this challenging technology fun.

And perhaps a third would be converter and inverter technologies for electric vehicles in the early stages of development before this major market push we’re seeing for EVs today. It’s a completely different tech from ADAS [advanced driver-assistance system], with its own set of complexities. That was a great learning opportunity for me as well.

What emerging tech are you most optimistic about? Least? And why?

One of the emerging technologies that I’m most optimistic about is lidar, because we are still in the early phases of lidar development. I’ve been a part of the roadmaps for radar and camera and have seen the product greatly improve over time in every aspect; Size, weight, cost, power, and performance—and we can expect the same for lidar. There is still tons of room for improvement in all these areas and it’s nice to be in the technical leadership position; not only for today’s lidar but also for our future roadmap and product offerings.

What’s the best piece of tech-related media you’ve read/watched/listened to?

I’m a big fan of the Formula 1: Drive to Survive series on Netflix. F1 does an amazing job of demonstrating the value of emerging technologies in an incredibly demanding driving environment.