Self-driving cars see better with cameras that mimic mantis shrimp vision

Researchers recorded a street scene viewed through a digital camera that records in grayscale (left), which is a little better than the cameras currently used in self-driving cars, and through two polarization cameras. Those two views look slightly different because one shows the amount of light polarization (middle) and the other shows the angle of polarization (right). In the middle panel, red hues indicate high levels of polarized light and blue hues reflect low levels. In the panel on the right, red hues indicate horizontally polarized light and blue hues show vertically polarized light. Images from both polarization cameras pick up a higher level of detail than the grayscale camera, bringing other cars, pedestrians and bicyclists more clearly into view.