The new Waymo cars based on Fiat-Chrysler’s Pacifica minivan seem to have a spinning Lidar exposed on the front corners. If you look close than you see a pretty small version of a Lidar, much smaller in diameter and height than the older models the size of can of paint, or the stretched ones that GM Cruise is using.

Usually they seem to be covered in a darkly tainted, test tube like plexiglass cover, but this one came without it. If this is the size of Waymo’s current Lidar, several questions arise. To what size can they minimize it? And is this the Lidar that costs a tenth of the ones from the past that started at over 70,000 dollar?

This article was also published in German.

