But, yes, any self-driving cars should absolutely be required to have lidar.

So they think self-driving cars should have lidar, like a vacuum cleaner. They agree, and think it’s a good idea, right?

I don’t think you could find any professional in the field that would argue that lidar is the proper tool for this.

…then in the next sentence goes on to say that lidar is not the correct tool. In the space of a paragraph they make two points which directly contradict one-another. Hence my response:

What is your point here, exactly?

They could have said “oops, typo!” or something but, no, instead they went full on-condescending:

I think you’re suffering from not knowing what you don’t know.

I stand by my response:

arrogant sack of dicks

And while I’m not naive enough to believe that upvotes and downvotes are any kind of arbiter of objective truth, they at least seem to suggest, in this case, that my interpretation is broadly in line with the majority.

One pro of Withings is that they’re French, so their policies on data in general are pretty great.

One con of Withings is that they’re French, so it’s not actually pronounced how you think.

I think you’re suffering from not knowing what you don’t know.

and I think you’re suffering from being an arrogant sack of dicks who doesn’t like being called out on their poor communication skills and, through either a lack of self-awareness or an unwarranted overabundance of self-confidence, projects their own flaws on others. But for the more receptive types who want to learn more, here’s Syed Saad ul Hassan’s very well-written 2022 paper on practical applications, titled Lidar Sensor in Autonomous Vehicles which I found also serves as neat primer of lidar in general..

…what is your point here, exactly? The stakes might be lower for a vacuum cleaner, sure, but lidar - or a similar time-of-flight system - is the only consistent way of mapping environmental geometry. It doesn’t matter if that’s a dining room full of tables and chairs, or a pedestrian crossing full of children.

One thing about the Pebble - and, I assume, these watches - is that they didn’t have WiFi or LTE, only Bluetooth. So it wasn’t possible for them to do any communication except through the apps already running on your phone. So, broadly, it’s a no.

Preordered here too, for all the same reasons. I went for the Time2, even though it’s not due to ship until later. I’ve waited nearly ten years, I can wait another six months…

Eutelsat are aimed at a different market: infrastructure. Their intended customers are larger and more demanding: research outposts, small villages, oil rigs, mobile phone towers, ships, and so on, as opposed to Starlink who focus on consumers directly, which is much more low-stakes. I’m genuinely curious if Eutelsat can move into Starlink’s territory.