Lidar eliminates the guesswork in autonomous driving

Generally speaking, the automotive industry has devised two paths to driverless cars. Whilst many take a ‘stepping stone’ approach – where higher levels of autonomy are gradually integrated into new cars – others such as Google are opting for a jump to full autonomy.

However, the two methods share a key similarity; both approaches require the integration of lidar technology at some point. But what is lidar, and how can it help cars drive themselves?