A Paradigm Shift in Autonomous Driving: Hesai Introduces the World’s First Full-Color LiDAR Chip, "Picasso"
Autonomous vehicle (AV) technology has advanced rapidly over the past decade, yet a fundamental limitation has persisted in environmental perception: the lack of native color recognition in Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems. Historically, LiDAR has mapped environments exclusively as monochromatic 3D point clouds. Hesai Technology has recently addressed this critical gap with the introduction of "Picasso," the world's first full-color LiDAR chip, marking a significant milestone for the future of autonomous mobility. The Limitations of Traditional Sensor Fusion Conventional LiDAR systems excel at determining distance, shape, and spatial coordinates. However, distinguishing critical visual details—such as the state of a traffic light or the specific markings on a road sign—has strictly required supplementary camera data. The standard industry practice of software-level "stitching" (sensor fusion) to combine LiDAR depth data with two-dimensional camera...