Lidar is fitted to new cars to improve safety but it’s definitely not safe for your smartphone camera’s sensor
1 hour ago
- A viral video shows a Volvo EX90’s lidar system ruining the smartphone filming it.
- The lidar’s laser fried some of the individual pixels in the camera’s CMOS sensor.
- Human eyes are safe with the lidar laser, which pulses to measure distances.
It’s only natural in these social media-obsessed times that you want to show off your new car to the world by grabbing some photos and video footage of it. But you might want to think carefully before you take aim with that $1,200 smartphone if your car is equipped with the latest ADAS systems.
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A video racking up thousands of views online shows Redditor u/Jeguetelli filming the roof-mounted lidar system on his Volvo EX90 and that equipment destroying his expensive smartphone camera’s sensor. As the image closes in on the lidar’s beam, which pulses to measure distances, it begins to leave a trail of lights on the screen, which are the result of the laser burning some of the individual pixels on the sensor.
Lidar’s Impact on Your Phone Camera
Now, you’re probably wondering, is lidar dangerous? Well, the intensity of lidar beams is tightly regulated, and according to the American National Standards Institute, lidar systems on vehicles meet Class 1 standards, meaning they’re safe for human eyes, so there’s no need to panic. They’re not going to give you laser eye damage, but they can still wreak havoc on your phone’s camera.
But they’re bad news for cameras, though as noted by Car and Driver’s Gannon Burgett, who clearly knows a thing or two about CMOS chips as well as cars, the damage only occurs when the Redditor’s phone switches over to its telephoto lens mode. The camera shows no damage in the first section of the video or the last portion, when the phone has switched to a wider angle.
Burgett reckons that wide angle shots won’t damage the sensor unless you’re right up close to the lidar source, but that the smaller apertures and “more focused optical path” of the telephoto mode that make them great for capturing long distance shots also put the camera at more risk of damage.
This phenomenon isn’t totally new – I know professional film makers who’ve had their cameras fried at events that were using fancy laser light shows when one of the beams shot straight down the lens. But it doesn’t mean you can’t get a hero shot for Instagram of your new lidar-equipped ride – you just need to think carefully about how you’re going to shoot it.
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