3 Lidar researchers chase the same dream — affordable self-driving systems
Elon Musk doesn’t care for Lidar — the light-based echo location technology that is similar in concept to radar — even though Volvo says it will incorporate Lidar units from Luminar into some its cars by 2022. The big difference is, radar uses radio waves, which are of much lower frequency than the light waves used by Lidar. Those lower frequency waves are quite good at penetrating fog, smog, haze, rain, snow, and drizzle. Light waves do not do such a good job when such atmospheric obstructions are present.