Lidar can return 3D images and is now used in everything from drones and archeological digs to law enforcement’s speed guns. “Not until we see published test results and comparisons that a Tesla can ‘see just fine,’ without a lidar, can claims be trusted.” “The feature has grave limitations,” Hall said of Autopilot, Tesla’s driver-assist feature. San Jose-based Velodyne, a leading maker of lidar, disagrees with Musk on the technology. In a statement after Musk’s lidar comments, Velodyne President Marta Hall also said Tesla is giving autonomy “a bad rap.” Tesla declined to make any executives available for this article. Musk has said the company will have fully autonomous vehicles by the end of the year and robotaxis next year.

Instead, Tesla relies on radar, along with eight cameras and ultrasonic sensors - which use sound waves - to send information to its vehicles’ computers. Lidar is “fricking stupid, expensive and unnecessary” for autonomous vehicles, Musk said last month. Now, as the self-driving era inches closer to reality, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other upstart companies are challenging lidar’s dominance by suggesting that radar and sophisticated cameras can do the same job of acting as the eyes of the vehicles for far less money. Lidar, which stands for light detection and ranging, uses laser beams to help vehicles measure distance. Experts and proponents say it adds depth and vision where cameras and radar alone fall short: in the dark, where cameras can’t see, and in helping vehicles detect objects. So the pioneers of the self-driving revolution found their solution in cameras, radar and – critically - lidar, a technology first used in the 1960s in meteorology and to map the surface of the moon. It’s short enough that it won’t take very long to approach it that way.In the race to a future in which self-driving cars deliver us safely to our destinations, technology’s brightest minds are debating the best way to make fully autonomous vehicles as good as or even better than humans at driving. I recommend playing it blind the first time to really enjoy the first run, then go back for the trophies on another run. Pretty short game with a comfy platinum to boot. There’s not really anything groundbreaking about Deliver Us The Moon, but it’s definitely a good game to play for that sci-fi mystery fix. There’s even some driving around on the surface of the moon in a moon car! I have to say I wouldn’t have minded more of the platforming and driving sections, as those were particularly fun. The puzzles are of such a nature that they are never too difficult to solve, but still require somewhat of an effort. The gameplay is fine, it's a good mix between finding out where to go, dealing with zero gravity, jumping around on platforms, avoiding some murder robots, and solving light puzzles. I’m not an expert in describing sound, but props to the individuals who did that part of this game. Sure, most of it is fed to you through email exchanges and audio logs, but I personally don’t mind that.Īs far as the audio side of the game goes, I love everything about it, from the atmospheric background noises to the few but well-fitting musical performances which really contribute to the mysterious and lonely feel which colors the game throughout.

The mystery you get to untangle is pretty intriguing, and I'd say the writing is a grade above what you see in most games where you collect logs and read past email exchanges. There’s no big monsters or over-the-top gore in this one – it’s more of a space mystery to unravel instead.

I guess it’s the design of the environments themselves which reminded me of Dead Space – things like space station corridors and big, open meeting spaces aboard the space station etc. The visuals are solid enough for a game of its nature (this is not a huge triple A game), and kind of reminded me of Dead Space, although this is more of a walking simulator-ish game with puzzles in it, rather than an action game. At the end of the day, whether you’ll like this game depends on whether that concept sounds interesting to you or not.

Deliver Us The Moon does one thing exceedingly well: conveying a feeling of being alone in space, unravelling a mystery that only you can get to the bottom of.

Deliver us the moon reddit