Waymo can see in snow (with LIDAR??)

[aWalkingShadow]

In the medium article and youtube video linked below, Waymo claims that their car can see in snowy conditions. They show an image of what seems to be what their car sees with LIDAR, and they show it before and after filtering. This highlights the idea that LIDAR might not be totally useless in adverse conditions after all.

Google I/O Recap: Turning self-driving cars from science fiction into reality with the help of AI

Starts 3:03:18

 

[Tam]

Ford said its LIDAR could filter out rain and snow in 2016 and make autonomous driving possible for those conditions:

Driverless cars have a new way to navigate in rain or snow

 

[aWalkingShadow]

Ford said its LIDAR could filter out rain and snow in 2016 and make autonomous driving possible for those conditions:

Driverless cars have a new way to navigate in rain or snow

Yes, I saw that. But it's still nice to get confirmation from another company, especially one with a car that's far along in its development (and arguably leading the SDC race).

 

[ang898]

For anyone watching the Ford video, and thinking how good LIDAR works, I will caution you that this Ford vehicle has four LIDAR units each costing more than $60K, not to mention the extensive processing on-board. Its nice to think that something like that would be on a commercial vehicle, but it never will. Still, the recent Tesla crashes likely could have been avoided if Tesla used LIDAR. Radar can be fooled, as can camera sensors and it appears this is what might have occurred here. Yes, LIDAR is expensive, but I think future lawsuits might be more expensive.

 

[R.S]

For anyone watching the Ford video, and thinking how good LIDAR works, I will caution you that this Ford vehicle has four LIDAR units each costing more than $60K, not to mention the extensive processing on-board. Its nice to think that something like that would be on a commercial vehicle, but it never will. Still, the recent Tesla crashes likely could have been avoided if Tesla used LIDAR. Radar can be fooled, as can camera sensors and it appears this is what might have occurred here. Yes, LIDAR is expensive, but I think future lawsuits might be more expensive.

This new advance in LIDAR tech have nothing to do with how good the LIDAR sensors are. It’s just filtering out noise digitally.

But in general you are right, long range LIDAR with good resolution is still very expensive. But solid state is getting better. And it’s good to see, that there is a solution to the biggest problem. Cost will come down with scale.

 

[Tezlanian]

For anyone watching the Ford video, and thinking how good LIDAR works, I will caution you that this Ford vehicle has four LIDAR units each costing more than $60K, not to mention the extensive processing on-board. Its nice to think that something like that would be on a commercial vehicle, but it never will. Still, the recent Tesla crashes likely could have been avoided if Tesla used LIDAR. Radar can be fooled, as can camera sensors and it appears this is what might have occurred here. Yes, LIDAR is expensive, but I think future lawsuits might be more expensive.

Wouldn't the cost of the sensors simply be a matter of manufacturing scale rather than prototype devices? Not sure that'd be an argument to really ding it with.

 

[banned-66611]

The older sensors are mechanically complex. Solid state ones reduce cost far more than economy of scale can, and they are smaller and lighter too.

The processing need is also getting more practical as the tech evolves to use dedicated LiDAR processing chips instead of generic ones.