4 ms·

I think all he way trying to say that there are ways that a LIDAR gun could give a false reading, and there's no current incentive for law enforcement/manufactu

I think all he way trying to say that there are ways that a LIDAR gun could give a false reading, and there's no current incentive for law enforcement/manufacturers to ensure accuracy. In fact there's an incentive for both the manufacturer to emphasise accuracy based on successful prosecutions, and for police to emphasise accuracy to prevent large-scale contesting of tickets. They are used for law-enforcement, but presumably aren't available for public scrutiny, especially around 'proprietary' algorithms. As mentioned, they can get firmware updates that change behaviour, yet that doesn't make it out into "does this mean it was mis-behaving before, therefore I should dismiss tickets issued in situation X". It's similar in some ways to vote counting machines. If they are used in public elections, then the inner workings should be available for introspection to ensure correctness.

darksim905 12y ago
Where are you people getting your information that they aren't available for public scrutiny? Has no one ever heard of Guys of LIDAR? http://www.guysoflidar.com/ http://www.guysoflidar.com/ Granted, they can't dump the firmware these devices use but they are very telling in what these detectors can pick up, can't, real world examples, and so on.
- gknoy 12y ago
  What stops them from dumping the firmware? Technical or legal limitations?
  - darksim905 12y ago
    I've wondered this too & I've reached out to them several times to no avail so either it's dead, they stopped doing it, or something happened. I'm trying to see if I can get a hold of a cop friend or two to see what the options are to legally acquire said LIDAR guns for tests. It would be a really cool project, even in the short hand.
- joncrocks 12y ago
  I hadn't realised they were commercially available as well. No I hadn't heard of guys of LIDAR, good to know there's someone out there fighting for the little guy.

darksim905 12y ago

Where are you people getting your information that they aren't available for public scrutiny? Has no one ever heard of Guys of LIDAR? http://www.guysoflidar.com/ http://www.guysoflidar.com/ Granted, they can't dump the firmware these devices use but they are very telling in what these detectors can pick up, can't, real world examples, and so on.

gknoy 12y ago
What stops them from dumping the firmware? Technical or legal limitations?
- darksim905 12y ago
  I've wondered this too & I've reached out to them several times to no avail so either it's dead, they stopped doing it, or something happened. I'm trying to see if I can get a hold of a cop friend or two to see what the options are to legally acquire said LIDAR guns for tests. It would be a really cool project, even in the short hand.
joncrocks 12y ago
I hadn't realised they were commercially available as well. No I hadn't heard of guys of LIDAR, good to know there's someone out there fighting for the little guy.