Waymo is the leading autonomous car company, owned by Alphabet, the business holding company that Google set for all its businesses.
Google’s cars began to drive autonomously in 2009 and already have traveled more than 8 million kilometers without any accident, which shows that artificial intelligence driving is already superior to human driving.
Having breakfast in San Francisco, Fisherman’s Wharf, I found a guy carrying a Lidar sensor backpack:
I asked permission to take some pictures but I did not want to interrupt him because he was working.
After a while I saw him again, apparently it was scanning the area thoroughly.
A Lidar sensor allows any robot (such as an autonomous car for example) to visualize the real world in 360º, with a depth and incredible precision. I speculate that this young man was “mapping” the neighborhood several times to generate a 3D database of the neighborhood.
Autonomous Uber cars, for example, have their own Lidar sensor:
I’ll tell you if I see him again or if I find more information about it.