NIssa has followed Tesla in saying Lidar is not necessary for self-driving cars.

“At the moment, Lidar lacks the capabilities to exceed the capabilities of the latest technology in radar and cameras,”  says Tetsuya Lijima, general manager of advanced technology development for automated driving.

Elon Musk recently called Lidar a “fool’s errand”. He says Tesla’s autonomous cars will be sold commercially next year and will not use Lidar.

“It would be fantastic if Lidar technology was at the level that we could use it in our systems, but it’s not,” says Lijima, “there’s an imbalance between its cost and its capabilities.”

Lidars currently cost about $10k but are expected to be down to $200 when in mass production.

Nissan’s autonomous cars, also due to be sold next year, rely on radar, sonar sensors and cameras both forward-looking and side-looking.

The cars will only work on pre-defined, single lane highways.

News Source: https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/nissan-follows-tesla-ruling-lidar-autonomous-evs-2019-05/