Google's Waymo, Uber and carmakers GM and Mercedes-Benz are among the companies working to put driverless vehicles in showrooms. That competition also should help lower prices that can reach US$75,000 (RM310,807) apiece for the sensors that scan a car's surrounding environment so it knows how to drive itself.
By 2020, there will be more than 10,000 autonomous cars equipped with lidar sensors, which bounce laser beams off objects to figure out where they are in three-dimensional space, according to a report published Sept 5 by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The scramble is prompting some of the world's biggest technology brands – including Microsoft Corp, Samsung Electronics Co and Baidu Inc – to invest in lidar developers.