The Vision Used by Self-Driving Cars Just Got a Major Upgrade

One of the amazing technological feats behind advances in self-driving cars is the light detection and ranging system, or LiDAR. This remote sensing device sends out pulses of laser light and measures the amount of time it takes for the reflection to return, allowing it to calculate the distance to objects. This technology has been used in aircraft for decades to detect their distance from the earth, as well as in a variety of mapping and modeling operations.

The gold standard for the LiDAR technology used in autonomous vehicles is produced by Velodyne, and its customers are some of the most widely recognized companies in both Silicon Valley and the Detroit auto industry.

The company that pioneered this groundbreaking technology is releasing a new device that seriously outperforms its predecessor -- and could vault autonomous cars into the mainstream.

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Source: Fool.com