Car lidars are burning out smartphone camera arrays

Reddit user Jeguetelli conducted an experiment that ended with irreversible damage to the smartphone camera. All thanks to the lidar mounted on the roof of the new Volvo EX90 electric car.

Lidar (from the English Light Detection and Ranging) is used in self-driving cars to create a 3D model of the environment. It emits a stream of infrared lasers that are invisible to the human eye, but vulnerable to camera sensors. When focusing on an active leader, dots appear in the image – these are not artifacts, but physical damage to the sensor.

“Never take a video of the new EX90, otherwise you will burn your phone camera. “Lidar lasers do this,” Jeguetelli wrote.

 

The video shows the image deteriorating when the camera is pointed at the leader with a telephoto lens. When switching to the wide-angle lens, no damage is visible, probably only one lens of the module is damaged.

This is not the first time: back in 2019, an engineer in the field of drone technology told Ars Technica that his $ 2,000 Sony camera stopped working after filming cars with leaders at the CES exhibition. In both cases, the use of long-focus optics, which enhances the effect of the laser, was a key factor.

Important

• Lidars are not harmful to the eyes – lidars in cars, including Volvo, operate at a wavelength of 1550 nm, which cannot penetrate the eye to the retina.
• Manufacturers warn that lidars can damage cameras when shooting, especially with zoom lenses. Such warnings are in the technical documentation, but few people read them.
• Tesla does not use lidars, preferring cameras and neural networks. This reduces the risk to the cameras, but raises questions about the reliability of such systems.

It is not a good idea to point a smartphone with a zoom camera directly at the leader – especially at close range. This can result in expensive repairs.