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1. There are supposedly new lidar systems coming out in the hundreds of dollars.

2. You can be "superhuman" with just image sensors (i.e. without lidar).

That said, I believe lidar is effective for precise object determination e.g. whether a small thing on the road is soft or hard which would help determine if it's a stuffed animal or a real one or a plastic bag in the shape of an animal.




What is difficult for lidar are the following:

* not-reflective / dark surfaces, i.e. http://www.thedrive.com/tech/9293/luminar-says-its-lidar-tec... has 10 percent reflectivity at 50 meters. As stated in the article Luminar is able to do the same at 200 meters, but violating eye safety standards. We might introduce paint restrictions - http://blog.caranddriver.com/why-better-paint-coatings-are-c... - but it's not really acceptable to paint everything I think. :-)

* fog and dust particles (already known since lidar use for aerial imaging).

* interference with other cars not so much (much worse with radar).

I don't know if soft/hard objects are so easy to recognize for lidar though! That's pretty challenging!




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