Interesting this … self-driving cars can now see in the dark, all thanks to Sony’s HDR camera.
As Tesla recently showed, video cameras are as important as radar and LiDAR in self-driving cars, tracking road signs, vehicles and pedestrians. However, most can’t handle tough lighting situations like very dark conditions, flickering LEDs or a sudden transition into a tunnel on a sunny day. That’s where Sony comes in with its latest automotive camera sensor. With high sensitivity, HDR capability and anti-flicker tech, it’s one of the first designed specifically to help autonomous vehicles function in less-than-ideal conditions.
Tunnels are particularly tough on entry and exit because of the huge differences in lighting (a RED camera demo from 2011 shows how well its HDRx feature handles that). As Sony illustrates in the video below, a non-HDR camera sees nothing but white when it encounters light at the end of a bright tunnel. With HDR and flicker removal enabled, however, the new sensor easily adjusts to the abrupt light transition and still spots a flickering LED light.
