Before driverless cars cruise American roadways, experts say the laser-powered "eyes" required to navigate vehicles will have to shrink in both size and cost before manufacturers can even think about clearing regulatory and legal hurdles. Similar to radar, Lidar -- for "light detection and ranging" -- shoots bursts of energy at a target and measures the return time to calculate the distance. However, while radar uses microwave pulses, Lidar uses laser beams able to detect smaller objects at longer distances. Since it was developed in the 1960s, Lidar has been primarily used in industrial work, police radar guns and mapping Afghanistan. Some premium models of certain cars already have simpler, less-expensive Lidars for advanced cruise-control systems or emergency stopping, but automakers continue researching new prototypes that can work regardless of weather conditions or speeds.
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