A new color Lidar breakthrough just made 'hands-off' self-driving cars a reality, experts say Chinese tech will 'significantly enhance' spatial intelligence and reduce the need to 'guess' objects like traffic lights

Date:
Tue, 21 Apr 2026 17:10:38 +0000

Description:
A new color-capable Lidar system has been hailed as a fundamental innovation for self-driving car technology.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter The world's biggest Lidar maker just unveiled its next-gen technology The system can detect color, velocity and reflectivity The tech is expected to hit the market later this year The world's biggest Lidar sensor manufacturer has just announced a next-gen version of its technology that is tipped to give self-driving cars a huge reliability boost.

Hesai Group announced this week that its new color-capable Lidar, called its '6D ETX full-color platform', is able to detect the X, Y and Z coordinates of an object, plus its reflectivity, velocity and color, according to the South China Morning Post . Compared to the black-and-white imaging that is
currently returned by most systems on the market, Hesai Groups ability to detect color, as well as any reflectivity and velocity, is expected to vastly improve the speed at which autonomous driving systems can determine and categorize objects, such as road sigs, traffic lights and emergency service vehicles. Article continues below You may like Tesla's controversial self-driving tech just got a green light in Europe I took a ride in an Nvidia-powered autonomous Mercedes at GTC 2026 - and survived Tesla's massive Spring update splits opinion as it leaves older cars behind

Hesai CEO David Li Yifan claims that the first iterations of the technology will hit the market later this year, stating that they will be the first of their kind. However, the CEO stopped short of revealing which brands would be receiving the Lidar system first.

This is not some kind of market hype, he said in a media briefing on Friday. It is a fundamental innovation, something that no one I know of has ever done before, the South China Morning Post reported.

Deutsche Bank conducted its own research paper into the technology, where it concluded that it eliminates the need for complex stitching or inference, meaning the autonomous driving system no longer needs to guess when identifying critical colored objects like traffic lights, lane lines or construction signs.

It reported that Hesais innovation would significantly enhance the spacial intelligence of artificial intelligence world models, which will likely shine a spotlight on the already profitable company that counts all of the top 10 Chinese carmakers as its clients. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Analysis: Hands-off autonomy is coming (Image credit: Volvo) Most of the major automotive players in China are racing to develop a 'hands-off' Level 3 autonomous driving system, which will safely and legally allow drivers to engage in 'side-tasks' when behind the wheel.

Right now, pilot Level 3 operations have started on designated urban roads in southwest Chinas Chongqing and on highways in Beijing, with more approvals expected to follow.

Tesla is also actively testing and rolling out its Supervised Full Self-Driving system in China, but it famously eschews Lidar and other sensors in favor of pursuing its camera-only approach, which it says will drastically reduce the overall cost. What to read next 'It's literally worry-free'
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But many Tesla owners are angry that the company promises self-driving capability on older vehicles, when it continues to roll out greater levels of processing power in new product.

Chinas push into more advanced Lidar system could help to improve accuracy,
as well as the speed at which a reliable self-driving system can be signed
off by the authorities.

Whats more, its highly likely that China will continue to support
cutting-edge technology that hails from its domestic market, rather than letting a company like Tesla become the first to market with a true 'hands-off' autonomous driving system. Follow TechRadar on Google News and
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