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LIDAR isn't helpful for water. Standing water behaves like a mirror on LIDAR.
by tintor 5mo ago
LIDAR isn't helpful for water. Standing water behaves like a mirror on LIDAR.
- throwway120385 5mo agoCould you use a different spectrum of EM radiation to detect water? There are parts of the microwave band that attenuate the signal by absorption and I wonder if you could use that. The only clue a human driver has in that situation is in the visible spectrum. The lines of the road disappear from view, which can be challenging to see at night.
- esseph 5mo agoIn theory you could send different frequencies, but then you run afoul of all kinds of potential interference with other systems and other local regulations.
- amluto 5mo agoIf the LIDAR can sense the road close enough to the front of the car, then it could estimate how far underwater the car is.
- 0x457 5mo agoThere are better ways to measure how far underwater the car is: https://www.landrover.com/ownership/off-road/wading-depths.html https://www.landrover.com/ownership/off-road/wading-depths.h..., this assumes you driving over something more or less flat underwater and that car is built for this. Here the goal is avoiding driving into the water in the first place.
- stevekemp 5mo agoThis is one of the reasons why I'm suspicious of camera-only systems, here in Finland. Half the year there's a lot of snow and ice around. Which I imagine means most of the view is "white" and "shiny". Coupled with the dark winters it's gotta be a nightmare to deal with.
- MetaWhirledPeas 5mo agoPlenty of snow and ice in parts of the US. Hopefully you'll get a chance to try the self-driving for yourself.
- whimsicalism 5mo agodo humans drive in it?
- cpgxiii 5mo agoNot necessarily. Depending on angle and water depth, multi-return LIDAR can give you returns from both water surface and the road surface beneath, in the same way multi-return LIDAR can produce returns from vegetation and the ground beneath.