Over the last two decades, the race to develop autonomous vehicles has introduced a new set of technological challenges and ambitions for the automotive industry. Among the sensor technologies vying for dominance, Light Detection and Ranging, or Lidar, remains one of the most hotly debated. Lidar systems map environments by bouncing laser beams off surrounding objects and measuring the return time, providing high-resolution 3D awareness in real-time. For most researchers and businesses, it is a key step on the road to complete autonomy. Yet, despite the promise, the technology remains an adjunct to mass-market automobiles.
As of 2024, fewer than 10 percent of new production vehicles worldwide include Lidar sensors, according to S&P Global Mobility. The primary reason is cost. Lidar units, particularly high-precision rotating units, are still expensive and large, with specific systems exceeding $1,000 per unit. Most carmakers still stick with camera- and radar-based systems, which are less expensive but lack the same spatial precision. Those drawbacks have limited Lidar adoption for cars, luxury vehicles, and testbeds.
Another issue has been the reliability and hardness of available LiDAR gear. Mechanical scanning solutions traditionally involve moving elements that degrade over time and are therefore not well-suited to long-term applications in harsh automotive environments. The technology has shifted its focus toward solid-state Lidar and hybrid scanning technologies, aiming to achieve improved cost, size, power consumption, and reliability profiles. Several companies have announced promising prototypes; however, few have achieved the scale and performance levels necessary for mass adoption.
Lj Ristic, a seasoned engineer and scientist specializing in sensors and microelectronics, spent a significant portion of his career at the intersection of MEMS design, semiconductor systems, and optical engineering. With several decades of experience in MEMS sensors, magnetic sensing, and micro-optoelectronic devices under his belt, Ristic is well-positioned to provide a historically informed perspective on Lidar’s history and what it would take to transition the technology to mainstream adoption in the automotive sector. His research has always been concerned with integrating sensing systems for scalable manufacturing, a problem at the core of Lidar’s current predicament.
Ristic studied electrical engineering, beginning a career in academic research in the late 1970s and 1980s. His work during that period, some of which was published in IEEE Transactions and other engineering publications, addressed integrated sensing, silicon devices, and semiconductor physics. By the 1990s, Ristic had transitioned into industry positions, including his stint at Motorola, where he led the development of surface micromachined MEMS sensors for automotive safety systems.
Over the past few years, Ristic’s work at Mirrorcle Technologies has focused on miniature MEMS mirrors, optical beam-steering devices, and systems based on MEMS mirrors. These mirrors offer a way to enhance Lidar technology by eliminating bulky rotating components and using solid-state ones. MEMS mirrors are capable of steering laser beams at high speeds across a scene, allowing for high-speed scanning. The opportunity is to minimize size and power consumption while maximizing reliability.
During the Laser Display and Lighting Conference 2025 in Dublin, Ristic talked about the future of Lidar. He emphasized how MEMS-based beam steering, when coupled with powerful control electronics and real-time processing, could enable a new generation of low-cost Lidar systems. Such systems would not only be smaller in size but also highly versatile. These systems can dynamically adjust scanning resolution, focus on specific regions of interest, or switch modes based on the driving scenario.
One that Ristic considers particularly crucial is projection intelligence. Instead of scanning an entire scene indiscriminately, future LiDAR systems could rely on contextual cues, such as GPS information, inertial data, or visual analysis, to target areas most relevant to the application. With this reduced scanning, made possible by the fusion of MEMS mirror systems and AI, comes a reduced data load and power consumption, along with enhanced performance.
While Lidar has been slower to reach consumer cars, Ristic feels it is likely to follow the path of other automotive technologies that started in high-end models before trickling down into economy models. Anti-lock braking systems, airbags, and GPS navigation had cost and integration issues before they went mainstream. With the Lidar market expected by MarketsandMarkets to hit $5.3 billion by 2030, most in the industry are gearing up for this change.
Nevertheless, Ristic warns that technical solutions only go so far. He stresses that Lidar also needs to meet manufacturing reproducibility, environmental test, and cost-to-value ratios standards before mainstream manufacturers will sign on to large-scale adoption. This realistic perspective aligns with his previous career emphasis on manufacturability, a lesson learned through his years of overseeing semiconductor product development at companies such as Motorola, ON Semiconductor, and Alpha Industries.
The coming decade will likely determine Lidar’s position within the vehicle sensor suite. It will be either a central element or a specialty feature based on how well the industry can overcome technical challenges. Ristic’s work and insights continue to influence that discussion, especially in communities interested in balancing innovation and scaled manufacturing.
Lj Ristic, with training that encompasses academic theory, industrial applications, and cross-disciplinary integration, might be considered one of the voices within engineering circles examining how sensor platforms will need to adapt to address real-world requirements. His continued research in optical MEMS applications indicates that, despite challenges, the path toward smarter, scalable Lidar in the match-box form remains achievable.
