Normally there are only four companies, plus Carnegie Mellon University, driving cars around Pittsburgh with funny looking racks of sensors on the roof.

But on this sunny Thursday afternoon, a Montana-based company was showing off its fancy sensors to journalists in Pittsburgh — literally dropping off a Post-Gazette team before picking up some television reporters — in a 2019 BMW X5 with tinted windows for added secrecy.

The company, called Blackmore, has a shiny, new toy for the autonomous vehicles industry and beyond: an improved lidar sensor that could improve computer vision…

Over the next two or three years, Blackmore hopes to bring the cost of its “Autonomous Fleet Doppler Lidar” down from a $20,000 price point when it’s first commercially sold this summer to under $1,000.
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