LIDAR Gives Sight to Autonomous Vehicles

What happens when the vehicle is in rainy muddy snowy sleety conditions?

SolarEagle, have a look at this article that we published a couple of weeks ago. Seems that Ford is having a look at the same issue.

I guess they still have a ways to go....maybe eyelid type wiper and protective reactive cover....with a nonstick surface...

...a rotating glass lens cover with a wiper...hey it works on the windshield...

I see a big problem using maps to guide a vehicle. I grew up in Chicago and I remember how the streets would have snow/ice covering the edges of the road. The autonomous vehicle would never have a map of the road with the narrower lanes (due to snow/ice coverage), so it could think the edge of the road was clear and drive the vehicle into a pile of snow or even a snowbank.

I think the idea of autonomous vehicles sounds great for some drivers, but the reality is that it will be very difficulty to create a "safe" vehicle, due to the many, many unknowns.

That will be quite a challenge even if the car knows where the traffic lanes really are. Traffic patterns shift when no one can see the traffic lines. Drifting snow may have one lane partially too deep to navigate, so "staying in your lane" isn't feasible.

The hill on my dirt road was so icy yesterday, that the only spot for traction was the berm on the opposite side of the road. Would an autonomous car even consider that as an option?

It probably wouldn't see it, if it's using maps. There's no way the maps could be updated to show where snow/ice is on the road or where the best traction is.

Its IR, so that some dirt and the like is mostly "not seen". Its also how spy satellites can see through clouds and the like.....

I was simply going to say "something more to clean maybe!", but I would think that they got this "covered", pun intended!!

It was fun to see that basically the same laser and rotating, faceted mirror technology that was used in Laser printers 20 or more years go, has resurfaced again in LIDAR.......

There are a couple of very poor videos of such a Laser Printer hexagonal mirror on YouTube if anyone is interested.

By the way, as far as I am aware, the spinning mirror technology for laser printers is seldom or never used anymore. I could be wrong as I haven't worked on such devices since about 1990.....Laser diodes appear to have overtaken them. But I have been wrong before........