Tesla, one of the leaders in autonomous, self-driving vehicles boasts 8 vision cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors and radar on all of the vehicles it is currently building according to recent company tweet. To make the right decisions by using the data from these sensors in the timeliest manner through sensor fusion, Tesla has developed a custom full self-driving (FSD) computer that has 6 billion transistors and can process up to 2300 frames per second. This represents a 21x improvement over the previous generation of hardware. Notably absent from the Tesla sensors list is LiDAR, the technology being pursued by most other potential suppliers of autonomous vehicles. And, there are several competing LiDAR companies.

Perhaps one of the best ways to get the latest update on the radar-LiDAR controversy and newest approaches to LiDAR is by attending a conference that focuses on autonomous vehicles or autonomous sensing.

On June 25-26 the second annual Autonomous Vehicle Sensors Conference will take place in San Jose, CA at the McEnery Convention Center. This two-day conference program will cover the latest research and real-world applications of sensors in the automotive industry and focuses on autonomous vehicle sensing technologies, including LiDAR, radar, ultrasonic sensors and cameras. The LiDAR Face-Off to be held at the conference should provide interesting and informative from industry experts.

Held earlier this year on March 20-21, in Detroit, Michigan ADAS Sensors 2019 was the 4th Annual Conference and Exhibition on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) sensors, including video, radar, LiDAR, ultrasonic and infrared (IR) sensors.

These are just two of the now annual events being held to address vehicle applications of these types of sensors.