lidar

noun

li·​dar ˈlī-ˌdär How to pronounce lidar (audio)
: a device that is similar in operation to radar but emits pulsed laser light instead of microwaves

Examples of lidar in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The company currently uses the all-electric SUV Jaguar I-Pace as part of its fleet in San Francisco and Phoenix, which are equipped with lidar, cameras, radar and an AI platform to safely maneuver through traffic. Nathan Solis, Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar. 2024 The lidar navigation system with AI object avoidance and room mapping keeps it on task, too. Quentyn Kennemer, The Verge, 1 Mar. 2024 The company’s engineers scrambled to write and transmit a software patch that would direct the spacecraft to instead use a NASA instrument of lasers and telescopes, called the Navigation Doppler lidar (NDL), affixed to the outside of Odysseus to guide the landing. Christian Davenport, Washington Post, 27 Feb. 2024 These autonomous trucks and drillers have sensors and lidars that rely on mission-critical connectivity and have many safety mechanisms, such as geofencing, to avoid injuries, accidents and obstacles. Claudio Saes, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2024 Of course, lidar, radar, and sonar have all been broadly used or at least considered for self-driving technologies. IEEE Spectrum, 3 Feb. 2024 Factors behind this escalation include an increase in sensors (including cameras, lidar and radar), high-performance computing (HPC) clusters and advanced vehicle architectures—all of which have been integrated to accommodate more advanced vehicle capabilities and consumer needs. Mayank Sikaria, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024 No matter how complex its behavior, any robot has only a limited number of sensors that pick up information about the environment (cameras, radar, lidar, microphones and carbon monoxide detectors, to name a few examples). David Berreby, Scientific American, 20 Feb. 2024 The actual scanning of the thousands of miles of roads is performed by a company called Dynamic Map Platform which uses vehicles equipped with lidar laser sensors to scan the roads. Popular Science, 15 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lidar.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

light + radar

First Known Use

1963, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of lidar was in 1963

Dictionary Entries Near lidar

Cite this Entry

“Lidar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lidar. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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