- A Volvo EX90’s lidar sensor was caught on video damaging a smartphone’s built-in camera.
- The lidar’s lasers damaged the camera’s telephoto lens, which fried certain pixels.
- Here’s a PSA: Don’t point your camera at lidar modules, and definitely don’t zoom in on them.
A viral video recently captured the moment a lidar system fried an iPhone 16 Pro Max’s telephoto camera module mid-recording. The footage, shared by Redditor u/Jeguetelli on the r/Volvo subreddit, clearly shows the moments the lidar module atop a Volvo EX90 damaged the sensor inside the smartphone that’s used to record the video.Lidar—short for light detection and ranging—is the visual cortex of many modern autonomous systems. It works by firing pulses of laser light (often in the near-infrared spectrum) and measuring the time it takes for them to bounce off objects and return. This helps create precise 3-D maps of the surrounding environment.The problem? Those lasers, while invisible and generally considered safe for the human eye under regulatory standards, aren’t so gentle on the delicate imaging sensors, such as the CMOS chips tucked into smartphone camera arrays.Why Your Zoom Lens Is at Higher RiskMost modern smartphones use multiple camera modules with separate lenses to achieve different focal lengths. When you zoom in to capture a photo or video, phones typically switch from the main wide-angle sensor to a telephoto module. The lenses used in the telephoto modules feature a more focused optical path and smaller apertures, which are ideal for long-distance capture of subjects but also more susceptible to laser damage.And that’s precisely what happened in the video. As the phone began filming a lidar-equipped vehicle, the damage only appeared when the telephoto module was engaged. The video shows how the pulsing laser damaged individual pixels on the sensor when the camera operator zoomed in, then it shows how the image was unaffected when using the wider-angle camera module once the operator zoomed out. Wide-angle camera modules can still be damaged via lidar systems, but as long as you’re standing a few feet away to capture photos or video, it’s unlikely these systems will cause any noticeable damage.VolvoThe lidar module on top of the 2025 Volvo EX90. The science behind it? Lidar pulses enter the camera lens, hit the pixel array on the sensor, and cause overheating or pixel burnout in specific regions, essentially frying the photosensitive substrate image sensors that are relied on to capture exposure information.Manufacturers of lidar systems are aware of the potential for damage and typically design them within Class 1 laser safety limits. However, those limits assume human-eye exposure, not repeated exposure to digital sensors with focusing optics.Consider Yourself WarnedWhile the lasers aren’t going to cause detrimental damage to your phone itself, the camera modules onboard your device are certainly susceptible to damage caused by lidar. As it becomes more common on production vehicles, consider this a PSA: think twice before pointing your camera towards the lidar modules, especially when using the telephoto camera modules. If you’re filming a car with lidar hardware, avoid zooming in directly at the sensor. This applies especially in bright sunlight, where lidar often operates at higher intensity.
Related StoriesGannon Burgett loves cameras, cars, and coffee: a perfect combination for his Hearst Autos work. His byline has appeared in USA Today, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, the Detroit Free Press, and more.
Source: caranddriver.com
