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Tesla's Decision to Snub LIDAR Might Come Back and Bite It One Day

Elon Musk's opinion on LIDAR is well-known since he hasn't been shy to talk about it every time the subject was brought up. Despite some evidence to the contrary - most famous of which being the fatal crash of Joshua Brown - the Tesla CEO insists his car can drive autonomously using only radar, video cameras, and ultrasonic sensors.
Ford Fusion with LIDAR 12 photos
Photo: Ford
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The reasoning behind his stance is that LIDAR is big, heavy, and expensive, and that it can't see when it's foggy outside, which the radar can. Well, he may be right about the last part of his argument, but the industry is starting to prove him wrong on the first three.

The LIDAR is very similar to radar, only instead of using radio waves, it sends out pulses of laser light which have a shorter wavelength. That means LIDAR can offer greatly enhanced resolution compared to radar systems, which is why so many companies looking to develop autonomous cars (read "all of them except for Tesla") have opted for this device.

Right now, the LIDAR used by most self-driving cars being tested is built by Silicon Valley-based Velodyne. It's called HDL-64E, it weighs 13 kilograms (almost 29 pounds), it covers a range of 120 meters, and it costs $80,000. However, Velodyne has announced a new device this year which brings massive improvement on all fronts: it weighs 600 grams (1.3 pounds), has a 200 meters range and would cost a car manufacturer $500.

That's great, right? 160 times cheaper, 20 times lighter and with a 60 percent increase in range - what more could you want? Spectrum IEEE provides an answer to that question by naming a few companies that are very close to obtaining some incredible advancements in the field of LIDARs.

From bottom to top, we have California-based Quanergy Systems who has shown a prototype solid-state LIDAR sensor that uses an optical phased array to direct the laser instead of the rotating mirrors and lenses of today's units. It would have a projected cost of $250, but Quanergy System hasn't released any info on its weight (it should be lower since is ditches the heavy glass) or range.

Even more secretive are two startup companies from Israel and Holland, respectively. Innovitz wants to bring to market a "high-definition sold-state LIDAR" that offers better performances than the current solution, while Innoluce uses a microelectromechanical mirror system to throw the laser beams around, claiming it will outperform those using the solid-state technology. Both plan to sell their products for $100 and have them ready by 2018.

Finally, there's the research done at MIT under DARPA's supervision. The scientists there have managed to shrink a functional LIDAR system onto a chip the size of a big grain of rice. The 0.5- by 6-millimeter chip only has a range of a few meters, but the researchers claim they can build one that covers up to 100 meters, and it would only cost $10.

If LIDAR becomes so affordable, not using it in a self-driving car would be non-sensical. And recent images showing Tesla cars with LIDAR sensors on top might suggest that Elon Musk isn't entirely sold on his current idea, but keeps an open mind about it. After all, if cost isn't an issue, what's the harm in creating a redundancy by installing as many different sensors as possible?
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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