Lidar

Lidar is revolutionising archaeology.

The machines navigate using a combination of pre-programmed maps and real-time sensing including Lidar, which sends and receives light pulses to create a 3-D scan of the ever-changing surroundings.

A LIDAR scanner isn't cheap.

Tesla bet on the idea that in the design of self-driving cars, lidar doesn't add enough capability, beyond what the cameras already provide, to be worth the additional cost.

Although operational environments profoundly differ, both kinds of autonomous vehicles, groundcraft and aircraft, will still rely on conceptually the same sorts of sensors — cameras, radar and lidar — to perceive surroundings in real time.

There's a lidar mounted on the roof of that Waymo.