In the main thread i just posted about Bill Ring working now for this LIDAR start-up, that has also connections to Michal Lipson. As I don't want to clutter the main thread, here short text about this start-up:
https://www.engineering.columbia.edu/news/voyant-photonics-lidar-scanner
And also interesting to read:
https://www.laserfocusworld.com/detectors-imaging/article/14284076/electric-flight-is-taking-off-thanks-to-photonics