Shares of
CF Finance Acquisition III (NASDAQ:CFAC) were trading lower on Wednesday after the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) announced that it has struck a deal to merge with lidar maker AEye.
As of noon EST, CF Finance Acquisition III's shares were down about 17.1% from Tuesday's closing price.
So what
Here's the background. California-based AEye was started in 2013 by Luis Dussan, an engineer who had worked for years on targeting systems for military fighter jets. Of note, these are artificial intelligence-based systems that have to be able to see, identify, and respond to objects very quickly.
Dussan (now president and chief technology officer) and his team have applied that kind of thinking to lidar-based systems for cars. AEye's offering isn't just lidar hardware, it's a whole machine-learning sensor system that is designed for vehicles using advanced driver-assist systems and (in time) autonomous vehicles as well.