Lidar

For MIT students, it will be like taking Uber to class.

Tesla might have a way to improve its Autopilot tech without grafting on new equipment.

Some of the biggest challenges in preparing self-driving cars for the road have little to do with the vehicles themselves. Worn lane markings, shoddy roads and uneven signage standards make it harder for autonomous cars to figure out where they're headed on many American roads. Poor weather and sunlight at low-angles can also make it hard for cars to discern the path ahead.

You'd think that self-driving cars would be most vulnerable to remote hacks, but the biggest danger may come from someone nearby with a handful of cheap electronics.

Does size matter? It could when it comes to self-driving vehicles and a small new hockey-puck shaped device that, when affixed to a vehicle, shoots out lasers to collect data-mapping points. That data is then used to guide an autonomous vehicle down the road. The size – both of the device itself and the potential price tag – is what's interesting here.

A pair of Pittsburgh Revenue Officers misunderstood the rules surrounding the use of some LIDAR gear loaned to the department for testing and issued a raft of tickets that the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police now has to retract. Apparently LIDAR is only approved for use when teamed with other systems like VASCAR and ENRADD, which measure speed in different ways, and these boys in blue were using it solo. Their mistake instantly invalidates about 650 speeding fines that were issued on account of the l