Modern cars are equipped with advanced driving assistance systems called ADAS. These sensor assisted systems improve reaction times and accuracy. Those provide run-of-the-mill safety features such as lane-keeping assistance and automatic emergency braking.

Mostly LIDAR sensors are used. It is short for Light Detection And Ranging. Lidar sends out laser pulses, and then measures time it takes to bounce off an object and return. The data is used to calculate how far away things are and create a 3D map of the objects in an area.

Lidar’s ability to map the surroundings as well as measure object velocity makes it a good complementary sensor. Lidars offer long and wide visual ranges.

There are many lidar producers such as Velodyne, Luminar, Innoviz. Lidars have been used in self-driving vehicles being tested such as Waymo and Cruise. Many automobile companies are adopting Lidar technology. Its use is being integrated to electric vehicles too.

Tesla would like to depend on self-driving software algorithms rather than lidar. This software makes use of computer vision. Some car companies install the lidar on their vehicles, even though the software currently is not making full use of the capability. The idea is that future iterations of the software will be able to tap into the sensors, and no physical upgrade of the vehicle would be necessary.