An Introduction to LIDAR: The Key Self-Driving Car Sensor

The original depth-sensing robot was the humble Bat (50 million years old!). A bat (or dolphin, among others) is able to perform some of the same capabilities as LIDAR using echolocation, otherwise known as Sonar (sound navigation and ranging). Instead of measuring light beams like LIDAR, Sonar measures distance using sound waves. After 50 million years of biological exclusivity, World War 1 advanced the timeline of the first major deployment of man-made Sonar sensors, with the advent of submarine warfare. Sonar works excellently in water, where sound travels far better than light or radio waves (more on that in a second). Sonar sensors are in active use on cars today, primarily in the form of parking sensors. These short-range (~5m) sensors enable a cheap way to know just how far that wall is behind your car. Sonar hasn’t been proven to work at the kinds of ranges a self-driving car demands (60m+). <a href="https://medium.com/trendy-digests/self-driving-cars-have-a-blind-spot-dark-skinned-pedestrians-bb1e7a8f30ec">Click Here</a>