Apple develops new lidar sensors or paves the way for autonomous driving

In the self-driving car R&D project, Apple takes a completely different route from its rival Google. In fact, Apple has never publicly admitted that they are developing self-driving cars. But Apple did not deny it. Therefore, the outside world only defaults to Apple, but the auto-driving car research and development project is kept secret. Apple’s secrecy has further provoked public speculation about the project.

The mysterious Apple car has so far been rarely reported, and some news reports are even in conflict with other media. Whether the most important Apple car can drive automatically is still unknown.

Apple's latest patent, "Using 2D scanning beam pulses for 3D depth point cloud technology," can be used to lay the groundwork for autonomous driving, even if the technology can be used for other purposes. This is a new type of lidar sensor developed by Apple. This technology requires the use of a fixed mirror, scanning mirror, photodetector and laser emitter.

The accompanying documents show that Apple chose to develop this technology because current electronic devices "excessively consumed power, limited xy resolution, limited depth resolution, picture distortion, limited frame rate, and long product development cycles."

If the technology goes into production, it will be used to further develop the Apple Maps application because the accuracy of the map requires a lot of outdoor scanning. As we mentioned before, this technology may also be applied to the imaginary Apple car.