Lidar emerging in a smaller, less-expensive form

Automotive lidar technology, which uses lasers to map the driving environment, has been criticized for being too expensive to produce at scale for the self-driving vehicle sector. Many industry observers believe future iterations of the technology must have fewer moving parts and use smaller, solid-state lidar for widespread adoption. Lidar makers are developing products that move toward those goals, with self-trucking company Aurora Innovation one that's heading in that direction. In July, the Pittsburgh company said it integrated optical components of its proprietary lidar sensors onto a series of semiconductor chips and demonstrated their functionality. Integrating lidar technologies onto a chip now enables mass production of its sensors, Aurora said.