LiDAR vs Camera vs Radar: Sensor Comparison for AV
Technical comparison of AV sensor technologies — range, resolution, cost, weather performance, and fusion strategies.
Key Highlights
- ✓ Range and resolution comparison
- ✓ Cost trajectory analysis
- ✓ Weather performance benchmarks (rain, fog, snow)
- ✓ Sensor fusion architecture patterns
- ✓ Tesla vision-only vs LiDAR-fused approaches
Overview
A comprehensive technical comparison of the three primary sensor technologies for autonomous vehicles: LiDAR, cameras, and radar. Evaluates range, resolution, cost, weather performance, and sensor fusion strategies.
What's Inside
Sensor Performance
LiDAR offers 200m range with centimeter-level resolution but struggles in heavy rain. Cameras provide rich semantic information but are limited at night. Radar excels in adverse weather but has low angular resolution.
Cost and Integration
LiDAR costs have dropped from $75,000 to $500 per unit. We project further cost reductions and compare the total BOM cost of vision-only (Tesla), LiDAR-fused (Waymo, Cruise), and radar-centric approaches.
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