Concentrated light sources can literally melt part of a camera’s sensor, which is why photographers are often warned not to photograph lasers or solar eclipses without taking proper precautions. But a viral video shared to Reddit is illustrating another potential destroyer of cameras: the LiDAR on self-driving cars.
LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) uses pulses of light or lasers to measure the distance between objects. Because this technology is laser-based, letting a pulse of light directly hit a camera’s sensor could burn a hole in those pixels – resulting in a permanent blank spot on any subsequent photos or videos.
