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Ouster’s new color lidar is coming to replace cameras

Published

6 months ago

May 4, 2026

The tech industry has spent the last decade asking whether self-driving cars need lidar sensors, cameras, or all of the above. Lidar company Ouster says it has a new answer: put them both in the same sensor.

On Monday, the San Francisco-based company announced a new lineup of lidar sensors it calls “Rev8,” all of which offer so-called “native color lidar.” These sensors are capable of capturing color imagery and three-dimensional depth information at the same time, doing the work of two sensors in one.

Ouster CEO Angus Pacala said the development has been a decade in the making at his company, and he wasn’t shy about his ambitions for the new product lineup in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch, calling it the “holy grail of what a roboticist has always wanted.”

“For all of human history, it’s been: you buy a lidar sensor, you buy a camera, and you try to make sense of the combination with some higher level reasoning, and waste an enormous amount of time doing this,” he told TechCrunch. “And companies only get really halfway there in terms of calibrating and fusing the data streams.”

Ouster’s new sensors, he said, change this equation.

“The goal is to obviate cameras. There’s no reason that one sensor can’t do both,” he said.

The Rev8 lineup arrives at a dynamic moment for lidar companies. There has been a years-long wave of consolidation happening, with Ouster buying Velodyne, and Luminar’s assets recently getting acquired in bankruptcy.

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At the same time, the market for sensors is exploding. Waymo and others have finally deployed working robotaxis and are scaling quickly. Robotics companies — humanoid and industrial — are hoovering up investment dollars and need sensors to perceive the world. There’s so much interest in the space that new companies like Boston-based Teradar are popping up and testing the waters with entirely new modalities. (In Teradar’s case, it’s using terahertz imaging.)

A color lidar that combines pinpoint depth information with camera-quality image data could be especially valuable to the robotics players, Pacala said. And he said Ouster worked with Fujifilm and image science company DXOMARK to understand “what it means to build a great camera.”

In fact, Pacala claims Ouster’s color lidar is “improving in many ways on a modern camera” thanks to the way the company already designs and builds its sensors.

Ouster uses so-called “digital lidar” architecture. Instead of the analog approach, which involves many moving parts, Ouster captures the lidar info directly on its custom chip using what’s known as single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detectors.

The company is using this same SPAD technology to capture the color image data in the Rev8 sensors. Pacala said this novel technique allows its image capture to be more sensitive than a normal camera.

“It’s 48-bit color, 116 dB of dynamic range, like mega pixel resolution. These are top line numbers that make it pound for pound good camera. But it just so happens it’s coming as a pre-fused data stream as a 3D colorized point cloud,” he said. “You can actually use the data as a camera stream as well, but it’s that’s one of the powers of this system, is you can use just the lidar data stream, you can use just the camera data stream, or you can use the pre-fused data stream, depending on how kind of forward-thinking your perception team is.”

Pacala said his company has already shipped samples to existing customers and that it’s now taking orders. He said he’s particularly proud of the OS1 Max sensor, which he said he considers to be “the industry’s best long range lidar.” It can see 500 meters in all directions and is smaller than other long range lidar “by a big margin.”

“We’ve had a long range LiDAR, but it hasn’t been just like clearly a cut above everything else,” he said. “That’s a big leap for Ouster. I think it means that we’ll start to see it much more on high-speed robo-trucking, robotaxi applications, I think a lot of drone stuff will transition to the OS1 Max.”

Other new lidars built on the Rev8 platform will include the OS0, OS1, and OSDome, according to a press release.

Ouster isn’t the only company that has started talking about color lidar. Last month, Chinese company Hesai announced its own color lidar platform that it says will enter mass production by the end of this year. Other companies, like Innoviz, have previously pitched their own takes on “color lidar.”

Pacala says most other players trying to “fuse” cameras and lidar sensors are basically packaging them together in a box, though. The approach Ouster (and, to be fair, Hesai) is taking is putting the lidar and imaging tech on the same chip.

This dramatically cuts down on the amount of work Ouster’s customers have to do to make sense of the competing sensor streams, Pacala said, and it also sets those customers up to eventually eschew cameras altogether — all while being cheaper and smaller than Ouster’s previous technology.

“This is kind of fundamentally changing the value proposition of what we’re selling to a customer from this stage forward,” he told TechCrunch.

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Related Topics:cameras color coming lidar Ousters replace

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Gov Alia receives APC flag for 2027 Benue governorship race

Published

2 hours ago

November 15, 2026

PlateauReports

Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has received the All Progressives Congress, APC, flag as its governorship candidate for Benue State ahead of the 2027 election during the Tinubu/Shettima rally in Jos over the weekend.

The presentation of the flag by the APC National Chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, represents a formal affirmation of Governor Alia's recognition and acceptance by the party as its standard-bearer in Benue State for the forthcoming governorship election, as well as an expression of the party's confidence and institutional backing for his second-term bid.

The presentation formed part of the rally's activities, during which APC governorship candidates from across the North-Central region received their respective party flags, reaffirming the party's commitment to its candidates as preparations intensify for the 2027 general elections.

The rally, held at the Zaria Road Stadium, attracted prominent national and regional political leaders, including First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, APC governors, members of the party's National Working Committee and other stakeholders.

President Tinubu, who led the national delegation to the rally, reiterated his administration's commitment to national development, particularly the restoration of peace and security in communities affected by violence.

He assured the people of Plateau State of the Federal Government's commitment to rebuilding communities affected by insurgency and facilitating the safe return of internally displaced persons to their ancestral homes.

The Vice-President, Senator Kashim Shettima, and Senate President Godswill Akpabio also addressed the gathering, highlighting the administration's development initiatives and calling for support for the APC in the forthcoming elections.

The rally attracted party faithful, supporters, and political stakeholders from across the North-Central region, providing a platform for the party's leadership to reaffirm its commitment to the 2027 electoral process.

Gov Alia receives APC flag for 2027 Benue governorship race

News

2027: Afegbua attacks Sowore over reaction to attack on Tinubu in Abuja mosque

Published

2 hours ago

November 15, 2026

PlateauReports

Edo State Commissioner for Information, Kassim Afegbua, has criticised the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore, describing him as a “public nuisance” and questioning his capacity to build a nationwide political structure.

Afegbua made the remarks during an interview on Arise News while reacting to Sowore’s criticism of President Bola Tinubu following the booing of the President by some youths in Abuja on Friday, November 13, 2026.

Sowore had accused Tinubu of hypocrisy, questioning why the President was now advocating peaceful political campaigns after experiencing hostility during his visit to the Shehu Shagari Central Mosque in Area 1, Garki, Abuja.

The incident occurred shortly after Tinubu attended Juma’at prayers at the mosque, where some youths were heard chanting “Ba ma yi, ba ma so”, a Hausa expression meaning “We don't want you” or “We don't support you”, as his convoy departed.

In a reaction posted on his X account, Sowore questioned the President's silence over alleged attacks on opposition politicians and their supporters across the country.

However, Afegbua dismissed Sowore's comments, arguing that someone aspiring to lead the country should demonstrate maturity, responsibility and decorum in public engagements.

“I don't want to listen to all of Sowore's rants because I see him more as a public nuisance,” the commissioner said.

He added that presidential candidates must understand the responsibility associated with seeking to lead a country of more than 250 million people.

“Leadership is a serious responsibility, and you cannot go around making flippant, ridiculous and reckless statements in the name of presenting yourself as a presidential candidate,” Afegbua stated.

He maintained that political ambition should be accompanied by a reasonable level of discipline, insisting that candidates must conduct themselves in a manner that reflects the position they seek to occupy.

The Edo commissioner also questioned Sowore's political reach, describing him as someone who fills a gap in Nigeria's political aspirations rather than a candidate with the organisational capacity to compete effectively nationwide.

According to Afegbua, establishing a functional political structure across all 774 local government areas would be a major challenge for the AAC presidential candidate.

He, however, acknowledged that politicians like Sowore play a role in expressing public frustration and providing an avenue for citizens to communicate their opinions.

Afegbua also defended Tinubu's call for adequate security for presidential candidates, arguing that the President's statement after the Abuja incident was consistent with an earlier directive to security agencies.

He said Tinubu had, two or three weeks before the mosque incident, instructed the Department of State Services, DSS, and other security agencies to ensure that all presidential candidates received adequate protection.

According to him, the President's latest remarks should therefore not be interpreted as a reaction prompted solely by the hostility he experienced in Abuja.

Afegbua further argued that Tinubu's political background gave him considerable experience in political struggles, noting that the President had faced difficult circumstances during his years in opposition.

He nevertheless stressed that occupying the presidency requires a broader sense of responsibility beyond party interests.

“President Tinubu is not just a member of the party. He's also the leader of the entire country,” he said, adding that the President has demonstrated that every Nigerian belongs, irrespective of political affiliation.

2027: Afegbua attacks Sowore over reaction to attack on Tinubu in Abuja mosque