News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Tesla's Autopilot Chief Keller Steps Down After Two Years by gamblor956 on Thursday April 26, 2018 @01:53PM (#16934021)
think LiDAR is a short term advantage, but the companies/stacks depending on LiDAR will reach a local maximum from which they won't recover without totally starting again from scratch. LiDAR is short range, low resolution, and extremely expensive. There is no reason that visible light (+ IR) CMOS cameras can't do better by an order of magnitude, at a lower cost.

I disagree. A visible-light based system like Tesla proposes is, quite frankly, a joke. Camera-based systems are too easily confused and require too much processing power to work in high-speed situations. (For example, at least one of the Tesla deaths was the result of the camera system failing to identify that a stopped object wasn't part of the road. A radar-based system would have easily recognized the obstacle.) Camera systems are also too dependent on maintaining the cleanliness of the sensors, and their performance degrades based on lighting conditions. While they certainly will be part of future AV systems (i.e., for street signs), they won't be the primary sensor.

Some combination of radar will form the basis of AV systems going forward. LiDAR is the most likely foundation, given its accuracy and speed, especially as LiDAR is expected to drop in price by nearly 99% over the next 5 years. (Recent developments in the underlying technology, plus economies of scale, have reduced the price of a full LIDAR suite from nearly $100,000/vehicle to just over $1000/vehicle. Technologies in the pipeline that are close to commercial production should reduce that cost to $100/vehicle or less.)

Re:Tesla's Autopilot Chief Keller Steps Down After Two Years by outworlder on Thursday April 26, 2018 @02:11PM (#16934176)
Not sure what you are going on about. Teslas HAVE radars.

https://www.tesla.com/blog/upgrading-autopilot-seeing-world-...

Re:Tesla's Autopilot Chief Keller Steps Down After Two Years by gamblor956 on Thursday April 26, 2018 @02:33PM (#16934353)
Tesla has extremely basic radar, not LIDAR. (LIDAR is a type of radar used for ranging and positioning, both of which are fundamental tasks for an self-driving system.)

Basic radar can provide positioning and ranging, but this requires additional processing to coordinate the input from multiple radar sensors to triangulate the positions of reflections. LIDAR gives you ranging with a single sensor, and positioning if you rotate the sensor.