“The automotive industry is a space that was untouched for decades,” says Omer David Keilaf, co-founder and CEO of Innoviz Technologies, in a podcast recorded as part of a collaboration between Tel Aviv 360, the podcast channel of Tel Aviv University, and The Jerusalem Post. “We got used to the fact that every year we were counting the number of people who died in car accidents, while not mentioning the number of people who were injured in these events.” Keilaf, whose older sister was seriously injured in an auto accident, says that it changed the lives not only of his sister, but of everyone in his family. Innoviz, the company he heads, is helping enable the mass commercialization of autonomous vehicles by providing high-performance LiDAR, a sensor that creates a 3D map of its surroundings, crucial for the navigation and safety systems of self-driving cars.
Inoviz is a direct tier one supplier to major global automakers, and in March 2024, BMW launched its personal pilot feature, one of the world’s first level 3 self-driving systems in series production, using Inoviz’s LiDAR. Omer has led the company through impressive growth, raising over $700 million, expanding to more than 400 employees, and becoming the first Israeli company to go public through its SPAC merger with Collective Growth Corporation in April 2021.
Keilaf, who studied at Tel Aviv University, where he earned bachelor’s, master’s, and MBA degrees, views self-driving cars as a feature that increases personal safety rather than a luxury addition to the vehicle. “I think people are unaware of the level of risk that they are exposed to when they are driving. People do not realize that the riskiest thing they are doing on a day-to-day basis is driving. The higher value of superior technology like the one that we offer is for safety.”
Speaking of his educational experiences at Tel Aviv University, Keilaf says, “The role of the university is not to give you the most up-to-date kind of technology. It’s actually the other way around. It’s to provide you with the basics so you can do things yourself and to teach you how to learn and approach problems. This is something I very much appreciated, and I think was a crucial component in how I’ve dealt with the challenges I’ve had to solve.
“One of the things that I think is unique about Tel Aviv University is that it urges you not only to go to school, but actually to work and to do many things, because it gives you the skill set that eventually you will need to deal with.”
The Tel Aviv University Alumni Community - A World Changing Community
Tel Aviv University has 220,000 alumni who are among the leading figures in Israel, holding key positions in the legal field, the high-tech industry, hospitals, the media, education, culture and academia.
More than half of our alumni are actively involved in the Aviv University Alumni Organization.
The organization's mission is to create an influential community working towards a better world. We take great pride in our alumni for their efforts in achieving this goal and their significant contributions to the community, the country, and the world at large - impacting our future and driving global change.
The Tel Aviv University Alumni Community and the Global Next-Generation Leadership Community – A World Changing Community.
This article was written in cooperation with Tel Aviv University.