Porsche test car with LiDAR spotted in Munich

© A. Krivonosov

A Porsche carrying a large measurement rig on its roof, including LiDAR, was photographed at Hohenzollernplatz in Munich. The photos were published on 2 October by Mario Herger, author of The Last Driver License Holder. Porsche has not said which model is being used, which programme the vehicle belongs to or which functions are being tested.

It is therefore too early to link the car to a future production automated-driving system. The use of LiDAR does, however, fit with known Porsche Engineering work. The company has previously explained that its current concepts for Level 3 and Level 4 automated driving use three independent physical principles for perceiving the surroundings for safety: cameras, radar and LiDAR.

This type of measurement equipment is not new for Porsche. In the JUPITER project, engineers used three Cayenne test vehicles fitted with additional LiDAR sensors at the front and rear, a stereo camera and high-performance computing units. The laser scanners used at the time collected 240,000 measurement points per second and could locate objects at distances of up to 250 metres with centimetre-level accuracy.

Such prototypes are not only used to verify finished functions. Additional sensors give engineers access to raw data that can be used to develop and validate algorithms for environmental perception, localisation, mapping and trajectory planning. The large roof rack therefore looks more like a research measurement system than a clue to the appearance of a future production Porsche.

Porsche Engineering has also noted that when such technology moves into a production car, the equipment is usually integrated with as little visible impact on the exterior lines as possible. This is especially important for Porsche because of its clean design geometry, although in some markets LiDAR can deliberately remain a visible design element. The size and position of the equipment on the car seen in Munich therefore say nothing about where such sensors might sit on a production model.

The context of the sighting is also notable. Waymo has already begun preparatory testing in Munich and is conducting drives with safety drivers for mapping and system validation. However, there is no evidence of any connection between that programme and Porsche, of joint testing by the two companies or of shared technology. So far, the only confirmed fact is the Porsche carrying an external sensor rig.