Ford Tests Its Self-Driving Car In Total Darkness Using LiDAR Tech (fortune.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Using a combination of radar, cameras, and light-sensitive radar called LiDAR, one of Ford's self-driving cars has successfully navigated a winding road at night and without headlights. LiDAR works by emitting short pulses of laser light -- 2.8 million laser pulses a second -- so that the vehicle's software can create a real-time, high-definition 3D image of what's around it to determine the best driving path. Ford's self-driving cars come equipped with high-definition 3D maps, which include information about road markings, signs, geography, landmarks, and topography. If a vehicle isn't able to see the ground due to inclement conditions, it will detect above-ground landmarks to locate itself on the map. Ford's self-driving cars equipped with the LiDAR radar system are particularly noteworthy because they can operate without the usual cameras that depend on sunshine and street lamps.

Comments

Re:Tolerant of other self driving cars?

[LDAPMAN]

They don't. Each emitter encodes it pulses with a unique signature.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...

Re:Google has been using LIDAR for years

[PopeRatzo]

Why is this such a breakthrough? Google self driving cars have been using LIDAR for years

Because this is Slashdot. The only thing that will drive Slashdot readership harder that self-driving cars is a story on SJWs, and there hasn't been any other self-driving car news today, so...