Self driving cars haven't figured out what to do in snow

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Just as it can for a human, an overabundance of white flurries can inhibit a driverless car’s visibility. Autonomous cars use various types of sensors to read roads including radar, cameras, and lidar, which uses light to calculate surroundings. As Fortune previously reported, snow can cover up radar sensors and cameras, and render lidar technology useless.

Ryan Eustice, associate engineering professor at the University of Michigan who’s working with Ford on snow testing, told Bloomberg that despite hype about autonomous cars “being nearly solved,” one that can “do nationwide, all-weather driving, under all conditions, that’s still a Holy Grail.” A car that can’t drive in the snow would be an unlikely purchase for 70% of the U.S. population, so car makers are now considering solutions to this roadblock.

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