The light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor uses infrared sensors to determine the vehicle's distance from an object. LIDAR has a rotating system that sends reflecting electromagnetic (EM) waves and calculates the time taken for them to come back to the LIDAR. LIDAR generates point clouds, which are sets of points that describe an object or surface in the environment around the sensor.
The LIDAR sensor can also classify objects as it generates 2 million cloud points per second, which generates the 3D shapes of the objects.