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Apart from the higher price why would you not want additional sensors like radar and lidar? If all human driven cars were already equipped with radar and emerge

Apart from the higher price why would you not want additional sensors like radar and lidar? If all human driven cars were already equipped with radar and emergency stop systems, mass pileups would be a thing of the past. Obviously there are situations where cameras or our eyes simply won't be able to see enough. Dark unlit objects at night aren't exactly an obscure edge case scenario, the crash from the video is something we already see on a regular basis with human driven cars, sadly. And even if not, I'd rather pay $1000 or so extra to protect me from that freak scenario that's likely never going to happen. Until it does. I also have airbags in my car although I never needed them.

soheil 5y ago
If there are so many lidars near each other the chance of lasers causing constructive interference increases causing irreversible eye damage.
- metadat 5y ago
  This appears to be unfounded speculation, do you have a source? Even if it is a real issue, the government regulators can simply set the max power limits lower for LiDAR units to ensure it's safe.
  - soheil 5y ago
    This is a well known and basic topic that you will be trained on before allowed to enter any physics lab with lasers in it. This can happen around shiny objects, windows on streets and pretty much anything that reflects light. "So coherent is laser light that one may observe interference effects even when the path difference between the interfering rays is much greater than 109 wavelengths! ... If two waves are exactly “in phase” as shown in Figure 1a, they will reinforce each other; this is called constructive interference." [0] [0] https://faraday.physics.utoronto.ca/IYearLab/intdif.pdf https://faraday.physics.utoronto.ca/IYearLab/intdif.pdf
  - trompetenaccoun 5y ago
    I was skeptical as well but looking it up it seems it's a genuine concern. Also you're right about limiting the power but interference in general could lead to problems, not just with lidar but radar as well. Maybe not impossible to solve but it seems like difficult issue, you wouldn't want misleading sensor reading lead to the car making a fatal decision.

soheil 5y ago

If there are so many lidars near each other the chance of lasers causing constructive interference increases causing irreversible eye damage.

metadat 5y ago
This appears to be unfounded speculation, do you have a source? Even if it is a real issue, the government regulators can simply set the max power limits lower for LiDAR units to ensure it's safe.
- soheil 5y ago
  This is a well known and basic topic that you will be trained on before allowed to enter any physics lab with lasers in it. This can happen around shiny objects, windows on streets and pretty much anything that reflects light. "So coherent is laser light that one may observe interference effects even when the path difference between the interfering rays is much greater than 109 wavelengths! ... If two waves are exactly “in phase” as shown in Figure 1a, they will reinforce each other; this is called constructive interference." [0] [0] https://faraday.physics.utoronto.ca/IYearLab/intdif.pdf https://faraday.physics.utoronto.ca/IYearLab/intdif.pdf
- trompetenaccoun 5y ago
  I was skeptical as well but looking it up it seems it's a genuine concern. Also you're right about limiting the power but interference in general could lead to problems, not just with lidar but radar as well. Maybe not impossible to solve but it seems like difficult issue, you wouldn't want misleading sensor reading lead to the car making a fatal decision.