According to a July 21 article in the Wall Street Journal, lidar will be the great enabler of new capabilities in cars, including of course, driverless cars. Price is the largest barrier, with the 64-laser 360-degree scanning lidar system on the Google driverless car costing between $75,000-$85,000 in it's current, limited-production manifestation. The lidar unit is made by Velodyne Lidar (Morgan Hill, CA).
According to the article, "flash lidar" (no moving parts, a single laser, and an image sensor) made by companies such as ASCar (Santa Barbara, CA; no website yet) will cost $15,000 in 2015, and drop to $500 or less when embedded in mass-market cars. The article also notes that TriLumina (Santa Rosa, CA), which make semiconductor lasers for lidar systems, hopes to drop its costs tenfold by 2016, to $150 per laser.
See this related article: Better laser diodes, arrays is goal of startup TriLumina
As applications have multiplied, we've been covering lidar with ever-increasing frequency at Laser Focus World. I think you'll find that these articles portray a technology that offers something for everyone:
Lidar: Single-photon lidar yields rapid topographic and bathymetric coverage
Lidar-equipped, light-carrying drones create optimum 'rim lighting' for moviemakers
Conard Holton | Editor at Large
Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.