LiDAR is expensive because it contains a series of high-quality optical components inside, and these components must be installed in a rotating space, so the technical requirements are very high. The leader Velodyne offers a new product at a fraction of the price of previous models: TOKYO. The prices of a key type of sensors used in autonomous cars are falling rapidly, suggesting that progress in the development of autonomous driving technology will accelerate. Velodyne Lidar, the leading manufacturer of LIDAR sensors, has developed a product with a price that only costs one-hundredth of what it cost until now.
This dramatic drop in the price of the sensors that form the basis of many autonomous vehicle designs could accelerate the evolution of autonomous vehicles. Discover the new Nikkei Asia app Nikkei Asian Review, now known as Nikkei Asia, will be the voice of the Asian century. With hundreds or thousands of lasers on a chip, VCSEL-based LIDAR can have a specific laser for each point in the LIDAR field of view. In typical Musk style, Tesla is a bit atypical when it comes to developing autonomous vehicles that do not use LiDAR (light detection and range) as one of their sensors, while many others insist that LiDAR is absolutely necessary for autonomous driving.
Tuesday's presentation offered few details about how the iPhone's LiDAR actually works, but this isn't Apple's first LiDAR device. Although LIDAR has a shorter range than radar (tens to hundreds of meters), the much shorter wavelengths used by LIDAR cause a massive increase in resolution. LIDAR is better than cameras or radars for detecting stationary objects, so adding LIDAR to cars could prevent many of these crashes and, at the same time, make ADAS systems more comfortable for drivers. Almost all companies value LiDAR because it is the best for measuring distances and detecting obstacles, so LiDAR is considered necessary for safety reasons.
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