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After two months Coming out of hiding With a $150 million raise, Boston-based Teradar is showing off its first groundbreaking terahertz sensor at CES 2026 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 any type of weather, filling a critical gap left by legacy radar and lidar sensors.”
The sensor will begin shipping until 2028 if Teradar can secure contracts with automakers. If that happens, the company expects the summit to help enable those companies to add partial or even full autonomy features to their cars.
Teradar’s entire approach revolves around taking advantage of the relatively unused terahertz band of the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared. Furthermore, it is a solid-state sensor, which means there are no moving parts. All of this is intended to give the Teradar sensor the best qualities of lidar and radar sensors, with few of the drawbacks.
It’s a potentially attractive proposition for automakers that might wither at the expense of lidars or the limitations of radar, and Terradar says it’s already doing the work to prove its technology. The company says it was in development with five major automakers from the US and Europe and three Tier 1 suppliers.
Teradar’s imminent entry into the market comes at a pivotal moment for automotive sensor suppliers. US lidar leader Luminar filed for bankruptcy protection in December after contracts with Volvo and Mercedes-Benz collapsed. As automakers retreat from technology.
These deals also collapsed in part due to 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 Hessai announced that it had built more than one million lidar sensors in 2025.
Other American companies in this field, such as Ouster – which It was acquired and merged with competitor Velodyne After a wave of mergers – it has diversified its business beyond cars into potential markets such as robotics and smart infrastructure.
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Teradar is looking beyond cars, too, and that vision is reflected in its recent raise. The $150 million Series B included funding from Lockheed Martin’s venture arm and VXI Capital, a New fund focuses on defence Led by the former technical director of the US Army’s Defense Innovation Unit.
Lidar isn’t completely dead in the automotive industry. Rivian announced in December that it would integrate a roof-mounted lidar sensor (from an unnamed supplier) into its upcoming R2 SUV, suggesting that there’s still an appetite for using advanced sensor technology to bring autonomy to passenger cars — especially if it’s affordable.
Teradar CEO Matt Curry told TechCrunch in November that he believed its terahertz sensor could meet all of those marks, and he seemed eager to seize the opportunity.
“Our main task is to make sure that our sensors are installed in all cars, and whatever the best way to do it is, that is what we will follow,” he said.