What Is Lidar, Why Do Self-Driving Cars Need It, and Can It See Nerf Bullets? | WIRED
IF YOU'VE BEEN in Silicon Valley, Pittsburgh, Boston, San Francisco, or any of the other cities where autonomous cars are crawling the streets in a 21st century version of drivers ed, maybe you've wondered: What's up with that overgrown gumdrop-looking spinning thing on the roof? That, dear carbon-based life form, is lidar, perhaps the most important piece of hardware in the race to unlock self-driving cars for everybody.
IF YOU'VE BEEN in Silicon Valley, Pittsburgh, Boston, San Francisco, or any of the other cities where autonomous cars are crawling the streets in a 21st century version of drivers ed, maybe you've wondered: What's up with that overgrown gumdrop-looking spinning thing on the roof? That, dear carbon-based life form, is lidar, perhaps the most important piece of hardware in the race to unlock self-driving cars for everybody.
