Back in April, CEO Elon Musk made a bold prediction about the future of the car industry. During the company's earnings call, Musk proclaimed that at some point, "all cars will need to be smart cars."One of the major features of a smart car is that the vehicle has the ability to drive itself.

Today, cars come equipped with a number of sensors and cameras that are constantly gathering information about traffic patterns, driving speeds, neighborhood layouts, and more. This information is stored and processed by car companies, which use it to train their autonomous driving software models.

Luminar Technologies (NASDAQ: LAZR) develops sensors that use lidar -- pulsed laser light -- to "see" and create 3D maps of what's around them. Lidar is increasingly being adopted as a key component of autonomous driving systems.

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Source Fool.com