The move from ADAS to autonomous demands a much greater awareness of everything around the car. In order to accomplish this, the number of sensors on the car are dramatically increasing, with multiple LiDAR, camera, ultrasonic, and radar sensors required to essentially replace and enhance human sight and situational awareness. Other sensor inputs such as GNSS and thermal cameras could also help with the positioning of the vehicle and the recognition of objects around the vehicle.
Currently, sensors are showing one error every 5 or 6 minutes. Next generation sensors will likely show an error approximately every 1,000 hours, however, to meet Level 3 safety requirements, it is essential that sensors show one error no more than every 11,000 hours.
The fusion and perception processing of the sensor inputs are still a roadblock, as even if we get the sensors perfect (at the right price point) the industry is a long way off from getting this right for every corner case because the computing horsepower and algorithms don’t exist yet. It will take over a decade before a computer can make all of the judgments in a guaranteed safer way than a human in boundless environmental conditions.