LiDAR sensors are usually the spinning cylinders that emit laser rays and analyze the reflections to map the environment for an autonomous vehicle. They are unwieldy mechanical devices that cost thousands of dollars, so we’re not seeing them on commercially available vehicles. Things might change after a new high-resolution LiDAR chip was developed at the University of California in Berkeley.

Waymo, the company that grew out of Google's self-driving car initiative, is seeking autonomy in more ways than one. Its latest move is to take in-house the design of the sensor packages on which its fully self-driving vehicle platform relies. Waymo CEO John Krafcik announced the move at the Automobili-D motor show in Detroit on Sunday, while showing off the latest incarnation of the self-driving Pacifica minivans the company has developed with auto maker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). "These Pacifica minivans will be the first vehicles to be equipped with Waymo's all-new fully integrated hardware suite and we've brought our self-driving sensors now in-house. It's all designed and built from the ground up by Waymo, with every part manufactured with just one goal in mind: To safely handle the complex task of full autonomy," Krafcik told the audience.