Lidar Blocked whenever it rains - what does the Lidar do?

[ksn]

I just got that same message briefly over weekend and it went away as soon as out of rain.

Received the error during the rain today. Haven’t had this issue after the 2.0.59 update but has started showing up after 2.1.20

Initially I only saw the yellow triangle with the yellow exclamation but no error message. Mobile service was with me when this happened and after diagnosing for a while he could t figure out why I received the alert. Later in the evening I received the alert again with the LiDAR blocked message

 

[Volund]

Same. I've never had lidar blocks before. Now it's showing up from last few updates

 

[Genghis]

Hate to bring up an old issue but it's been raining (light) these past two days in SoCal. I get this warning and everytime I take the car out in the rain. Is this still an ongoing issue or do I need to get my car checked if it's been resolved?

 

[Neurio]

Hate to bring up an old issue but it's been raining (light) these past two days in SoCal. I get this warning and everytime I take the car out in the rain. Is this still an ongoing issue or do I need to get my car checked if it's been resolved?

Got it multiple times in the rain today. The car is just warning you - nothing to be worried about. Can't wait to see how often I get it in the atmospheric river tomorrow.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I drove through an atmospheric river using highway assist most the time a few days ago. Only got the lidar blocked error once, when the rain was lighter, it seems speed + heavier rain helps.

 

[borski]

I had the same issue the last day or two. Based on my understanding, unfortunately that is how LiDAR works. The way LiDARs are generally designed is using small grids in the surface area. If more grids are blocked with water droplets you will get the LiDAR blocked warnings.

It seems to be a really common issue for LiDAR in general, in the rain, not just Lucid.

 

[Genghis]

I drove through an atmospheric river using highway assist most the time a few days ago. Only got the lidar blocked error once, when the rain was lighter, it seems speed + heavier rain helps.

Does it turn off HA when the LIDAR is blocked or does it continue without it?

 

[Genghis]

I had the same issue the last day or two. Based on my understanding, unfortunately that is how LiDAR works. The way LiDARs are generally designed is using small grids in the surface area. If more grids are blocked with water droplets you will get the LiDAR blocked warnings.

It seems to be a really common issue for LiDAR in general, in the rain, not just Lucid.

Good old Google.

A new study models how rainy conditions affect LiDAR sensors

According to researchers, the ability of autonomous vehicle LiDAR sensors to detect objects at a distance is proven to be less effective in heavy rain.

www.lidar-insighter.com

"If a LiDAR beam crosses a raindrop close to the transmitter and the raindrop reflects enough of the beam back to the receiver, the receiver will perceive the raindrop as an object."

 

[joec]

Does it turn off HA when the LIDAR is blocked or does it continue without it?

Unfortunately, it does turn off HA (or ACC). Very abruptly. Which is super annoying.

I would like it if Lucid added a warning for a few seconds before just disengaging HA altogether immediately.

 

[PewPew]

Every single time for me, for as long as I've had this car, whenever there's light rain. Service rep said it is kinda common and they might address it in software. In the Bay so not a common occurrence but still kind of a bummer

 

[momo3605]

I had the same issue the last day or two. Based on my understanding, unfortunately that is how LiDAR works. The way LiDARs are generally designed is using small grids in the surface area. If more grids are blocked with water droplets you will get the LiDAR blocked warnings.

It seems to be a really common issue for LiDAR in general, in the rain, not just Lucid.

Huh I thought the whole point of Lidar was that it doesn't get blocked by simple weather conditions like vision based camera systems. Admittedly i am not an expert in this field, but i don't really know why else you would go with Lidar if it still gets blocked

 

[hydbob]

Huh I thought the whole point of Lidar was that it doesn't get blocked by simple weather conditions like vision based camera systems. Admittedly i am not an expert in this field, but i don't really know why else you would go with Lidar if it still gets blocked

It's like a second opinion. Lidar + Vision for autonomous driving is the best way. One or the other seems incomplete.

 

[joec]

Huh I thought the whole point of Lidar was that it doesn't get blocked by simple weather conditions like vision based camera systems. Admittedly i am not an expert in this field, but i don't really know why else you would go with Lidar if it still gets blocked

Radar is the one that just about never gets blocked by weather. And that seems to track, given I’ve never seen a “radar blocked” warning.

 

[borski]

Huh I thought the whole point of Lidar was that it doesn't get blocked by simple weather conditions like vision based camera systems. Admittedly i am not an expert in this field, but i don't really know why else you would go with Lidar if it still gets blocked

You're thinking radar. Radar doesn't get blocked.

Ultrasonic works fine in the rain also.

LiDAR does not work in rain or fog, and neither do cameras.

The reason you may be thinking the opposite is because when Tesla decided to go 'camera only' and get rid of all their ultrasonic sensors, this forum heaved a collective sigh for the safety of Teslas trying to do FSD in the rain.

 

[Adnillien]

Radar, Lidar and vision all have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Radar as said earlier has the least degradation from weather or lighting conditions but has rather poor resolution meaning two objects a 100 to 200 feet away may look like one object. Radar resolution keeps improving with each generation. Radar is fairly low cost but still a lot more than vision.

Lidar has excellent resolution for distinguishing between objects and determining their position and distance. It is also not affected by lighting conditions. However, rain and fog degrades its ability. It is also very expensive.

Vision is excellent for target recognition with very good resolution. Its weakness is that it is degraded by both weather and lighting. It is very cheap.

The best systems use a combination with multiples of all three sensor types.

 

[chucky0731]

Unfortunately, it does turn off HA (or ACC). Very abruptly. Which is super annoying.

I would like it if Lucid added a warning for a few seconds before just disengaging HA altogether immediately.

Few days ago when it was raining in So Cal, I got the LIDAR Blocked message, but was able to still activate the HA function, and it seems functioning normally.

 

[David@2024]

I picked up mu new Air Touring in Seattle and the first warning i got was Lidar Blocked. My delivery agent said they are working on making it less sensitive. I wonder if that will change its effectiveness?

 

[DeaneG]

I picked up mu new Air Touring in Seattle and the first warning i got was Lidar Blocked. My delivery agent said they are working on making it less sensitive. I wonder if that will change its effectiveness?

There's a lot of room for cleverly filtering sensor inputs in software. I wouldn't worry ahead of time.

 

[Julesncate]

so about a year ago I wrote i was getting the Lidar Blocked almost everytime it rained. This thread seems to claim it has been fixed. well NOT in my GT and NOT in the GT loaner i got TODAY to use while Lucid sorts out why my cowl is lifting off repeatedly and shredding my wipers.

 

[mcr16]

so about a year ago I wrote i was getting the Lidar Blocked almost everytime it rained. This thread seems to claim it has been fixed. well NOT in my GT and NOT in the GT loaner i got TODAY to use while Lucid sorts out why my cowl is lifting off repeatedly and shredding my wipers.

Thank you for sharing. I just sent you a DM.