Hyundai unveils its self-driving car company Motional that will launch as robotaxis by 2022

Self-driving cars often use a combination of normal two-dimensional cameras and depth-sensing'LiDAR' units to recognize the world around them. However, others make use of visible light cameras that capture imagery of the roads and streets. They are trained with a wealth of information and vast databases of hundreds of thousands of clips which are processed using artificial intelligence to accurately identify people, signs and hazards. In LiDAR (light detection and ranging) scanning - which is used by Waymo - one or more lasers send out short pulses, which bounce back when they hit an obstacle. These sensors constantly scan the surrounding areas looking for information, acting as the'eyes' of the car.