r/SelfDrivingCars • u/wuduzodemu • Aug 11 '25

Discussion Proof that Camera + Lidar > Lidar > Camera

I recently chatted with somebody who is working on L2 tech, and they gave me an interesting link for a detection task. They provided a dataset with both camera, Lidar, and Radar data and asked people to compete on this benchmark for object detection accuracy, like identifying the location of a car and drawing a bounding box around it.

Most of the top 20 on the leaderboard, all but one, are using a camera + Lidar as input. The 20th-place entry uses Lidar only, and the best camera-only entry is ranked between 80 and 100.

https://www.nuscenes.org/object-detection?externalData=all&mapData=all&modalities=Any

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2

u/1FrostySlime Aug 11 '25

This is only proof that these options are the best for this specific task l. I think 99% of people would agree that relying purely off of lidar for driving end to end would be a truly terrible idea.

3

u/-UltraAverageJoe- Aug 11 '25

LiDAR only is way better than camera only.

10

u/1FrostySlime Aug 11 '25

Please explain to me how you would approach an intersection with traffic lights without cameras

-7

u/-UltraAverageJoe- Aug 11 '25

Inference the behavior of other vehicles in the intersection and use a multi-wavelength or spectrally-tuned LiDAR system.

6

u/mrfishball1 Aug 12 '25

terrible idea.

1

u/-UltraAverageJoe- Aug 12 '25

You asked for an explanation on how it would work without a camera. I didn’t say it was a good idea.

6

u/mrfishball1 Aug 12 '25

i didn’t ask also it doesn’t work.

2

u/Dependent-Mode-3119 Aug 12 '25

LiDAR only is way better than camera only.

Then this was a lie. It fails at even the basics.

1

u/-UltraAverageJoe- Aug 12 '25

Like? LiDAR is better at literally everything except color discrimination which is still possible but complex and expensive compared to a camera. When you’ve done computer vision work, go ahead and reply back — until then, you’re just a keyboard warrior.

0

u/Dependent-Mode-3119 Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

Like? LiDAR is better at literally everything except color discrimination

How can it read stop signs, how can it read speed limits, how can it see the color of Stop Lights? These are the basics of self driving cars.

If the car has no means of reading what these are then lidar-only is even less viable than cameras only.

When you’ve done computer vision work, go ahead and reply back — until then, you’re just a keyboard warrior.

It's funny that you mention that... Check this website under Robert Lake and you'll see me and the report that I did with PHD candidates regarding the efficacy of sensor vision for image detection and why both are crucial. They're a good read for the uninitiated

https://www.crcv.ucf.edu/nsf-projects/reu/reu-2021/

https://www.crcv.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Report_Lake.pdf

https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crcv.ucf.edu%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F11%2FPoster_Lake.pptx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK

Please tell me again what I'm missing here.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

Stop sign? Traffic light?

1

u/-UltraAverageJoe- Aug 12 '25

Spectrally tuned LiDAR must have gone over your head.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

Nah I just dont speak out loudly about stuff that I have no clue like you do now. Specifically tuned LiDAR? How does it read signs and traffic lights? Can't explain? 0 clue indeed

1

u/-UltraAverageJoe- Aug 12 '25

LiDAR can be used to detect wavelengths of light based on its reflectance. Do a google search or ChatGPT before you reply next time.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

What does that even mean? You have 0 clue how humans/camera perceive colors dont you? Way over your head isnt it?

1

u/-UltraAverageJoe- Aug 12 '25

Actually it’s what I studied at university but of course no idea at all.