Two months after coming out of stealth with a $150 million fundraiser, Boston-based Teradar is showing off its first flagship terahertz sensor at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show this week. The company is positioning the sensor, called Summit, as the first long-range, high-resolution sensor of its kind “designed for high performance in all types of weather, filling a critical gap left by traditional radar and lidar sensors.”
The sensor will begin shipping in 2028 if Teradar can close contracts with automakers. If that happens, the company expects Summit to help those companies add partial, or even full, autonomy features to their vehicles.
Teradar’s whole approach is about leveraging the relatively untapped terahertz band of the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared. And it’s a solid-state sensor, meaning there are no moving parts. All of this is intended to give Teradar’s sensor the best properties of lidar and radar sensors, with few of the drawbacks.
It’s a potentially attractive proposition for automakers that might struggle with the cost of lidars or the limitations of radar. Teradar says it is already working to prove its technology with five leading automakers from the US and Europe and three Tier 1 suppliers.
Teradar’s impending market entry comes at a pivotal time for automotive sensor suppliers. Leading US lidar company Luminar just filed for bankruptcy in December after contracts with Volvo and Mercedes-Benz collapsed as automakers abandoned the technology.
Those deals also collapsed in part because of low-cost competition from China, according to Luminar. Lidar adoption has been strong in China’s automotive market and shows little sign of slowing down. In October, Chinese lidar company Hesai said it had built more than 1 million lidar sensors by 2025.
Other US companies in the space, such as Ouster (acquired and merged with rival Velodyne after a wave of consolidation) have diversified into potential markets such as robotics and smart infrastructure.
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Teradar looks beyond the automotive industry, and that vision has been reflected in its recent growth. The $150 million Series B included funding from Lockheed Martin’s venture arm and VXI Capital, a new defense-focused fund led by the former CTO of the US military’s Defense Innovation Unit.
However, Lidar is not completely dead in the automotive industry. Rivian in December said it would integrate a lidar sensor on the roof (from an unnamed supplier) in its upcoming R2 SUV, signaling that there is still an appetite for using advanced sensor technology for passenger vehicle autonomy, especially if it’s affordable.
Teradar CEO Matt Carey told TechCrunch in November that he believes the terahertz sensor can hit all those marks, and he seemed eager to jump at the chance.
“Our main job is to make sure our sensor has access to all cars, and whatever is the best way to do that, that’s what we’re going to pursue,” he said.
