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Assholedesign warning: it's not possible to dismiss cookies, only to accept them and supposedly go into 'Settings' to turn them off afterwards (not sure as I never went that far).
What I hoped to find out from TFA was: does the camera have to be in use and pointed at the LIDAR source, or it's equally dangerous to just have them in the pocket while around such a source?
Just use reader mode on your browser
the sensor of the cell phone camera broke because the latter was set to take close-ups and pointed directly at the lidar sensor. The Reddit user in question posted footage of the incident with his iPhone 16 Pro Max using the example of a brand new Volvo EX90.
Anti-asshole design: just rip the text and post it here. If they don't want to be consumer friendly, we don't have to be friendly to them.
Side note, kinda odd that we're the consumers when in reality we get what the rich give us and they consume all our efforts.
Highly automated or autonomous vehicles are increasingly equipped not only with radar and camera technology, but also with lidar. This "light detection and ranging" is based on the fundamental principle of measuring the time of flight of light. At its core, lidar works in a similar way to radar with radio waves or sonar, but uses laser light instead, which is intended to enable precise 3D detection of the surroundings regardless of the lighting conditions. However, the technology also has side effects that have received little attention to date: A Reddit user found out earlier this month that car-mounted lidar sensors can massively damage smartphone cameras under certain circumstances.
The phenomenon is the technological equivalent of staring directly at the sun with the human eye and the sensor of the cell phone camera broke because the latter was set to take close-ups and pointed directly at the lidar sensor. The Reddit user in question posted footage of the incident with his iPhone 16 Pro Max using the example of a brand new Volvo EX90.
The lidar device on the roof of the electric SUV essentially emits a series of powerful infrared beams and determines the distance to the vehicle's surroundings. To do this, it measures the time it takes for the reflected light to return to the sensor. When passers-by point the camera of their cell phone directly at these beams, the laser can virtually fry the pixels on one of the cell phone's image sensors. The damage was immediately visible and left behind a color constellation shifting between red, pink and purple. Only the telephoto lens was affected, as the image returned to normal after zooming out to another lens. Volvo advises against special photos
Volvo warns car owners against copying this. The Swedish car manufacturer issued a general recommendation to the magazine "not to point a camera directly at a lidar sensor". The laser light emitted by it could potentially damage the camera's sensor or impair its performance. Volvo points out that cameras are most vulnerable when they are close to the object and pointed directly at the lidar sensor.
According to The Drive, the risk is generally due to the technology and has nothing to do with Volvo's specific implementation in the EX90. However, the car manufacturer had already warned against focusing external cameras on the vehicle's lidar capsule on a support page at the beginning of the year for the reasons mentioned. As cars with lidar vehicles are likely to be on the road more often in the future, this danger should not only be known to buyers of such cars. Tesla could also make greater use of the technology in future due to pressure from regulators, although company boss Elon Musk has long dismissed lidar sensors as "expensive and unnecessary".