BMW tests next-gen LiDAR to beat Tesla to Level 3 self-driving cars::Tesla’s autonomous vehicle tech has been perennially stuck at Level 2 self-driving, as BMW and other rivals try to leapfrog to Level 3.

  • tibi@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Tesla’s decision to only use cameras and no lidar will bite them in the ass.

    • MacAttak8@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Came here to say this. Couldn’t be more on point. Using both cameras and LiDAR in tandem will be necessary for true self driving vehicles.

      • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        fortunately LIDAR unit costs are going down, so multiple units, fusing their data with regular camera arrays should resolve a very good view, and be good at error-correcting for each other’s shortcomings.

    • Thorny_Thicket@sopuli.xyz
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      2 years ago

      Currently they seem to be leading the race though even though the competition is using radar and lidar

      Edit: Am I wrong?

    • AreYouNotEntertained@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Humans drive using “cameras” (eyes) and no LiDAR, that’s the assumption Tesla is making — that a supercomputer can drive 10x better than humans using the same type of sensor. Nobody really knows yet if that’s true but I get the logic.

      LiDAR also is UV/visible spectrum and is blocked by dust/fog/snow/rain so it doesn’t help much in many driving situations…

      • falkerie71@sh.itjust.works
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        2 years ago

        You’re making an argument against LiDAR with it using UV/visible spectrum, guess what uses visible spectrum to see stuff? Cameras. And they also have an unfortunate downside of not having good dynamic range, so in very bright/low light situations they probably don’t work that well either. Teslas aren’t even using infrared cameras to see in the dark to my knowledge.

      • scarilog@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Unsure why you are downvoted, because that is sound logic. I recall hearing on a podcast of I think a former Tesla engineer that having too many sensors potentially makes things less effective since you have to deal with different types of input, and have to crunch more data, etc. etc. Efficient development also means knowing when to cull unnecessary time sinks.

        I hate Elon as much as the next guy, but… Well, humans are obviously not perfect drivers, but Tesla clearly believes that in time, with cameras all around the car (already an improvement over human drivers), a good enough AI solution would be able to match or surpass humans.

        • falkerie71@sh.itjust.works
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          2 years ago

          I still rather have good ol radar as a fallback if cameras and their AI model don’t work for some reason. They are still work in progress, and rely on trained models to recognize objects, while if a radar sees something, it is because there is something actually there and not a guess. I don’t buy the story that too much sensors is bad. Planes rely on multiple different sensors plus backups for redundancy to fly safely, self-driving cars with vastly superior tech should be able to do the same.

          • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
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            2 years ago

            They actually have used radar along with the cameras for a while. It wasn’t until the last few years that they decided to ditch them. I think I read that they realized it was a mistake and are going to add them back on future models.

        • AreYouNotEntertained@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Anything short of fiercely anti-Tesla gets immediately downvoted here. Just how it goes I guess. I’m not the biggest Tesla fan but hope they succeed on this front, we desperately need driving assistance technology to make the roads safer.

      • You999@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        That’s not how light/laser and prisms work. Prisms only separate out the frequencies that are contained within the light/laser. imagine the light is a sandwich and each frequency is a peice of the sandwich. If you take apart the sandwich you still have the same bread, meat and cheese just not stacked together. That’s what the prism is basically doing.