No LIDAR Means No Safety in Self-Driving Vehicles, Says Auto Supplier Exec

If you’re going to let people take their hands off the wheel and let the vehicle do the driving, you’d better offer every tool available to make sure it’s safe.

That’s the view of Stefan Sommer, CEO of German auto parts supplier ZF Friedrichshafen, who advocated for the use of LIDAR (light detection and ranging) in autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles in the wake of the fatal Tesla crash.

Quoted in Automotive News, Sommer said he didn’t have any details on the May 7 crash that killed Joshua Brown, but he did know what it takes to make sure a vehicle knows what’s in front of it.

“For autonomous driving, we will need three core technologies: picture processing camera technology, short and long-range radar and lidar,” Sommer said at a news conference today.

LIDAR uses laser beams to map out objects in front of a vehicle in a similar manner to radar waves. It’s an expensive technology, but several companies are actively pursuing it — including U.S.-based Velodyne and a Canadian developer that plans to conduct vehicle trials over the next two years.

Sommer said that LIDAR’s ability to recognize objects in bright-light and low-light situations makes it essential for any autonomous driving system. While he refrained from mentioning Tesla’s technology, that company’s Autopilot uses only a forward-facing radar and camera to see the road ahead, along with external sensors to monitor the vehicle’s immediate surroundings.

Brown’s Model S drove underneath the trailer of a transport truck while on Autopilot after the system failed to recognize the brightly lit trailer against the equally bright sky. Tesla confirmed that the light confused the system, but repeated its earlier warning that drivers need to remain aware of the road and be able to respond quickly while using Autopilot.

A Tesla Model S test vehicle spotted in California in March appeared to be outfitted with LIDAR, meaning future versions of Autopilot could adopt the technology. If it does go that route, Tesla could market Autopilot as a fully autonomous system, once lawmakers allow it.

Of course, there’s always those looking for an easier way to get the same result. In an interview with TTAC, Millennial hacker-turned-inventor George Hotz — who created his own self-driving vehicle from an Acura ILX — said he plans to develop a camera-only system for autonomous driving. His ILX testbed used LIDAR at first, but he said the cost of a Velodyne device is prohibitive. Cameras, on the other hand, have never been cheaper.

[Image: Volvo]