Lidar has been around for quite some time, but to date, it’s been custom—and expensive. Right now, there isn’t a clear-cut solution that’s suitable for all applications, such as lidar in autonomous vehicles. As they explore options, optical and mechanical engineers are forced to make choices and tradeoffs during the design process.
Here we’ll discuss what lidar is and how it’s currently being used, some of the challenges in developing lidar for autonomous vehicles, and how virtual prototyping can help designers get to lower-cost lidar for autonomous vehicles faster.