A future Apple Watch could be essential for diabetics

Apple is quietly developing a sensor that can monitor a person’s blood sugar levels continuously and non-invasively. If successful, the technology will be integrated into a future version of the Apple Watch to help people with diabetes manage their condition. At least, that’s the scuttlebutt being slung around by CNBC, which claims the project was set up by Steve Jobs before his death.

According to the report, Apple has quietly hired an anonymous-looking office building well away from its HQ for engineers to work in secret. It’s believed that the company has been so successful it is already running trials of the sensors at “clinical sites” in San Francisco’s Bay Area. In fact, progress has been so encouraging that Apple has already hired consultants to help it navigate the torturous process of getting FDA approval.

There are a number of practical issues to overcome, including the fact that using optical sensors to read blood glucose is /hard/. The world is littered with the bodies of companies that have tried — and failed — to use noninvasive monitoring for this particular issue. HealBe’s GoBe, for instance, promised to count your calorie intake without penetrating the skin, and we know how well that went.

Right now, the only effective way to continuously monitor someone’s blood glucose level is with implants or other invasive tech. Continuous glucose monitors often use a stomach-based implant that connects with a transmitter that’s held on the outside of your stomach. Even new wearables like KTrack use tiny needles that burrow into the skin in order to work.

According to statistics from the World Health Organization, there were 422 million people living with diabetes in 2014. That’s up from 108 million in 1980, a staggering increase for a disease that is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, stroke and heart attacks. In addition, the better part of four million deaths per year can be directly attributed to diabetes-related conditions.

If Apple can, somehow, innovate where so many others have not, then it will make the number of people who have reason to purchase a Watch increase exponentially.

Source: CNBC

You can finally drive a Porsche in ‘Forza’

Porsche has just signed a six-year partnership with Microsoft, confirming its iconic cars will be making their first appearance in the Forza Horizon series. Kicking off the new deal is Forza Horizon 3’s Porsche Car Pack, a brand new DLC bundle out now, which brings seven different Porsche vehicles to the game. With Forza boasting gaming’s largest online racing community, Porsche has also chosen to align with Microsoft for its first ever sponsored eSports tournament. Both PC and Xbox One players can now register to compete in Forza Racing Championship Season 3: The Porsche Cup, which boasts a prize pool of $100,000.

With the Forza Racing Championship amassing over a billion impressions across its first two seasons, it’s easy to see why the automobile firm chose Forza over the competition. Wanting to entice both simulation and arcade racing fans, Microsoft is allowing Season 3 players to participate in either Forza Motorsport 6 or Forza Horizon 3 competitions. In a bid to soft launch the season, Porsche and Microsoft are holding the Forza Racing Championship 2017 New York invitational on April 15-16th. This invitational tournament will see players competing for $25,000, with Season 3 proper kicking off on May 1st.

Porsche content is only just coming to Forza because the prestigious brand previously signed a 16 year exclusivity deal with EA for Need For Speed. Yet, with EA’s racing franchise slowly losing its dominance, it looks like this time — Porsche is spreading its bets. As well as the lengthy partnership with Microsoft, the car manufacturer also announced that selects cars will also drift into Sony’s upcoming GT Sport.

Still, Porsche’s shift from a multi-platform sponsorship deal to a Microsoft only agreements shows just how successful the Forza series really is. With the Gran Turismo series being out of the game for quite some time now, the pressure is definitely on if GT Sport is to take back Sony’s long-lost racing crown.

Source: Xbox

Microsoft offers refunds on digital purchases for Xbox One and Windows 10

Why it matters to you

You can now feel a lot more comfortable with that Xbox One or Windows 10 Store digital app or game purchase.

Buying a piece of software via digital download can be a very different experience depending on the platform and the digital store. The Google Play Store and Apple App Store have their own limited return policies, while the Windows 10 and Xbox Stores have had a very limited refund policy that required jumping through some processing hoops.

Microsoft is changing all that for Windows 10 and Xbox buyers, however, with a new policy that’s making its way from the Xbox Alpha group of beta testers to everyone else. Now, users will be able to process their own digital app purchase refunds in a manner that’s not only faster and easier but a bit more liberal as well, as Ars Technica reports.

The news came first to gamers signed up for the Xbox One “Alpha” preview ring, with an announcement that promised a new refund program for both Xbox One and Windows 10 users. As Ars Technica notes, Microsoft’s new policy is similar to Steam’s, namely that buyers have 14 days to return a title after purchase and as long as they haven’t used an app or game for greater than two hours in total. The news was also posted in the Xbox One reddit by user gaymerRaver.

gaymerRaver/Reddit

The process isn’t quite so easy as simply selecting the title in the Xbox One or Windows Store interfaces. Rather, users wanting to process refunds will need to head to the order history section of their Microsoft account and then navigate to the relevant app or game. Users whose accounts have already been migrated into the new system will see a “request a refund” button, which doesn’t seem to be working for everyone at the moment.

Microsoft has established some limitations on the refund policy. For example, refunds won’t be available for “DLC, season passes, and add-ons,” and anyone wanting to process a refund will need to wait at least a day before making the request.

Nevertheless, this change marks a meaningful improvement to the Xbox One and Windows 10 digital purchase experience and should make Microsoft’s stores significantly more attractive to buyers. Certainly, the company’s new policy is markedly better than those offered by other vendors, such as the Google Play Store with its two-hour refund period and Sony’s PlayStation store that requires a call into customer support that only sometimes results in a refund.

Toyota unveils robotic leg brace to help give paralyzed patients their mobility back

Why it matters to you

Toyota’s new robotic leg brace may offer partially paralyzed patients a new path to mobility through therapy.

Toyota unveiled a new robotic leg brace at its head office in Tokyo on April 12. It’s called the Welwalk WW-1000 and may help bring mobility back to partially paralyzed people.

“Our vision is about trying to deliver mobility for everybody,” Toshiyuki Isobe, Toyota’s chief officer for research, told the Associated Press. “We have been developing industrial robotics for auto manufacturing, and we are trying to figure out how we can use that technology to fill social needs and help people more.”

Worn one leg at a time, the Welwalk system consists of a single leg brace that connects to the thigh, knee, ankle, and foot. Sensors help monitor walking speed and gait in order to provide support, while medical staff use a touchscreen to control the device, which is intended to be used during treadmill therapy sessions.

Toyota will begin to rent out 100 Welwalks to medical centers around Japan for a one-time initial charge of $9,000 and a $3,200 recurring monthly fee.

Eiichi Saito, medical doctor and vice president at Fujita Health University, told AP the device is intended to assist patients but not give them too much support. “This helps just barely enough,” he said. Light support helps patients rehabilitate without making them dependent on the device.

Such assistive devices are intended to help patients gain back their mobility and help physicians monitor progress, according to Luke Hares, chief technology officer at Cambridge Medical Robotics in the United Kingdom. He told AP that devices like Welwalk allow therapists to be “so much more precise.”

This isn’t Toyota’s first human-centered robot. The car manufacturer previously demonstrated its Human Support Robot, which uses a robotic arm to grab objects for bedridden patients.

Other Japanese manufacturers are investing in medical robotics as well, including Panasonic, which last year unveiled a robust robotic exoskeleton. And car manufacturers like Hyundai have been showing off similar exoskeletons since May 2016. However, Toyota’s is specifically designed for rehabilitation.

Huawei sells 5 million Mate 9s in four months

Sales up 36% from Mate 8, manufacturer says.

Huawei’s big-screened Mate 9 was well received by critics, with overhauled software, a gigantic battery and a new dual-camera system. And it looks like the company’s best “phablet” yet has apparently translated that into strong sales. Gizchina reports that at a Chinese press conference, Huawei noted that 5 million Mate 9s had been sold in the first four months of availability, up 36% from its predecessor, the Mate 8, during the same period the previous year.

It’s not clear which models this covers, but it’s likely Huawei’s including numbers for the Mate 9 Pro and Mate 9 Porsche Design, as well as the standard 5.9-inch model, in this total.

Huawei also provided an update on sales of the P9 series, released in spring 2016. The smaller device now stands at 12 million units sold, the first Huawei flagship to reach the 12 million mark. The figure is 152% higher than 2015’s P8, and a significant gain on the 9 million figure reported around the time of the Mate 9 launch.

For its successor, the new Huawei P10, the company has reportedly set an initial target of 10 million, aiming to surpass that in the long term.

The new phone went on sale in the UK on March 31, with the smaller P10 being ranged across all major networks, and the larger P10 Plus being sold on all but second-largest operator O2.

More: Huawei Mate 9 review

Which Beats headphones are right for you?

Beats headphones have gone through various iterations over the years and following the company’s acquisition by Apple, they are more popular than ever. Their signature bass-focused sound has remained a constant throughout the series’ development, too, making them the ideal partner to music libraries full of dance and hip-hop music.

With several pairs available to buy across all different fits though, whether over-ear, on-ear or in-ear, deciding which pair is best for you can be a bit tricky. Luckily for you, we’ve broken down all the pairs available today, covering their size, features and their all-important price.

Quick Summary

There are eight pairs of Beats headphones available, comprising two pairs of over-ears, three pairs of on-ears and three pairs of in-ears.

The Studio Wireless are perhaps the most recognisable pair in Beats’ catalogue. The Studio headphones have been around for some time now and were the pair you would always see in various eye-popping colours walking down the high-street. They’re an over-ear design and as the name suggests, can connect wirelessly to your mobile device. They’re available in a range of more muted colours these days and have active noise cancellation technology.

The Solo 3 Wireless are the pair you’ll most likely be convinced to buy with your shiny new Apple iPhone if you’re buying from an Apple Store. They’re an on-ear design, and feature the new W1 chip that made its first appearance in the Apple AirPods. The chip means the headphones will instantly connect to your iPhone when they’re nearby. They have a long battery life, quick recharge time, and are available in the same colours as the iPhone.

The Beats EP are a portable pair of on-ears and the cheapest way to get into Beats headphones, along with the urBeats in-ears. The urBeats have a rubberised cable that prevents it from getting tangled, and an in-line mic for making and receiving phone calls. 

The Beats Solo 2 are essentially a wired version of the Solo 3 wireless, although they’re available in a different range of colours.

The Beats Pro sit at the very top of the company’s repertoire and are used by artists and producers when making music in the studio. They promise to offer the very best sound from Beats.

The Beats X are unique in the fact that they’re recharged via a Lightning cable, rather than a USB Type-C or miniUSB. They also have Apple’s W1 chip inside to easily connect them to your iPhone, or any other Apple device. They’re therefore a wireless pair of in-ear headphones, but not in the completely wireless sense of the Apple AirPods as there’s still a neckband. 

Finally, the Powerbeats 3 Wireless are a sports-orientated pair of in-ears. They’re wireless, also make use of the W1 chip and they have an ear-hook design to make sure they stay in your ears when exercising. They’re sweat proof, waterproof and weather proof, so no need to fear if you’re out running and get caught in a shower.

Beats

Beats Studio Wireless

Price: Buy now at Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com

• Headphone style: Over-ear
• Connection: Bluetooth
• Colours: Matte Black, Titanium, Gold, Gloss White, Gloss Black, Metallic Sky

The Beats Studio wireless are an over-ear headphone design that encapsulates your whole ear inside the ear cup. This design helps to block out external noises, although it’s aided further by active noise cancellation (ANC). The ANC can be used whether you’re listening to music or not, so they can act as ear defenders, sort-of.

The built-in rechargeable battery claims to last up to 12 hours, and the lightweight build combined with the soft materials used will mean you’ll want to keep them on your head for as long as possible. There are controls on the headphones themselves to skip tracks, change volume and accept phone calls. 

The Beats Studio are not just one of the most iconic pairs of Beats headphones available, but one of the most iconic pairs of headphones full stop. We’ve only heard their wired counterpart and found that if you’re into upbeat dance music, or hip-hop, they’ll suit you down the ground. They can go loud and hard, and the addition of active noise cancellation should only help focus you on the music.

Read more: Beats Studio (2013) review

Pocket-lint

Beats Solo 3 Wireless

Price: Buy now at Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com

• Headphone style: On-ear
• Connection: Bluetooth with W1 chip
• Colours: Gloss Black, Gloss White, Rose Gold, Black, Gold, Silver, Ultra Violet, (PRODUCT) Red

The Solo 3 Wireless were introduced around the same time as the iPhone 7 and come with Apple’s new W1 chip. This chip was first rolled out with Apple’s own AirPods wireless in-ear headphones, and promises greater battery life, a greater Bluetooth range and improved connectivity options for iPhone users.

They’re available in the same selection of colours as the iPhone 7 so you can match them up, and touch-sensitive controls are present on the left ear cup for skipping tracks and changing volume. If you happen to run out of battery, Beats claims up to 40 hours of life when connected via the W1 method, after which you can then plug in a 3.5mm – 3.5mm cable for a wired connection to your phone. Or you can charge them up for five minutes to get three hours worth of playback time.

In terms of sound they’re very much a pair of Beats headphones, that means bass in your face. But they do bass very well. So if you’re after a powerful yet portable pair of headphones and want to benefit from W1 connectivity, the Solo 3s are for you.

Read the full review: Beats Solo 3 Wireless headphones review: Bass solo

Beats

Beats EP

Price: Buy now at Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com

• Headphone style: On-ear
• Connection: Wired
• Colours: Blue, White, Black, Red

The Beats EP represent one of the most affordable ways to get your ears on Beats headphones. They are an on-ear pair of headphones, and connect via a conventional cable, no Bluetooth wireless here. Beats says the EP headphones have been tuned to reproduce sound “the way it was meant to be heard”. 

They’re designed for portability and as such, have a lightweight, stainless steel frame and come with a carry pouch. The cable has a RemoteTalk unit which is compatible with iOS devices to take calls and control your music. 

They’re a stylish pair of headphones that will no doubt provide the signature, bass-heavy Beats sound and will be ideal for anyone looking for an affordable headphone upgrade for their phone.

Beats

Beats Solo 2

Price: Buy now at Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com

• Headphone style: On-ear
• Connection: Wired
• Colours: Black, White, Luxe Red, Luxe Blue, Luxe Silver, Luxe Black

The Solo 2 headphones are similar to the EP in that they’re portable on-ears with a constant wired connection, but they add an extra level of comfort thanks to ergonomic, pivoting ear cups.

The extra padding on the ear cups helps to block out the majority of external noise, leaving you to listen to music with “a wide dynamic range of sound and natural clarity”.

The Solo 2 are instantly recognisable, a great looking headphone upgrade and are firmly in the affordable category for headphones of this quality.

Pocket-lint

Beats Pro

Price: Buy now from Apple 

• Headphone style: Over-ear
• Connection: Wired
• Colours: Infinite Black

The Beats Pro headphones are the company’s top of the range model and are used in recording studios by producers and artists alike. They don’t feature any amplification or noise cancellation as these would add extra frequencies into the sound. Their steel and aluminium build helps to provide a rigid frame to prevent vibrations. 

When they’re plugged into a music source, the other ear cup becomes an output, meaning someone else can plug their own headphones into yours to hear what you’re hearing.

The Beats Pro are an expensive pair of headphones, but unlike other pairs of Beats headphones, they don’t focus entirely on bass, instead delivering a much more balanced sound.

Read more: Beats Pro by Dr Dre (2012)

Pocket-lint

Beats X

 Price: Buy now at Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com

• Headphones style: In-ear
• Connection: Bluetooth wireless with W1 chip
• Colours: Black, White, Grey, Blue

The Beats X headphones are wireless in-ears that have Apple’s new W1 chip inside to help instantly connect to iOS devices and MacBooks. They’re not completely wireless like the Apple AirPods as they still have a neckband connecting the two earpieces, but this hosts the battery, power switch and remote control. When you’re not listening to music, you can leave the Beats X dangling around your neck, and the earpieces have magnets in them to connect together to they don’t flail about.

You get up to eight hours of battery life from a single charge, and they’re recharged using a Lightning cable, not Micro-USB. They benefit from Quick Charge technology too, which gives you two hours of life from just five minutes of charge time. The Bluetooth range of the Beats X is incredibly good, which is largely down to the W1 chip. 

They serve up a relatively bass-heavy sound, which is to be expected, and for the most part it doesn’t overly dominate the other frequencies. We did notice it could be a little too heavy with female vocals, but not enough to put us off listening. The Beats X are a great pair of wireless in-ear headphones, the combination of good sound quality and W1 Bluetooth connectivity, for an affordable price, makes them a great addition to your iPhone.

Read the full review: Beats X headphones review: Bass marks the spot

Pocket-lint

Powerbeats 3 Wireless

Price: Buy now at Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com

• Headphone style: In-ear
• Connection: Bluetooth wireless with W1 chip
• Colours: Black, White, Flash Blue, Siren Red, Shock Yellow

Sports headphones have become a big business over the last few years, but Beats has always been there with a pair of its own. Sports headphones need to stay snugly fit in your ears, provide a good sound quality to keep you motivated and be weather proof. Fortunately, the Powerbeats 3 Wireless tick all those boxes.

They have an ear hook style fit, which makes sure they stay on your ears when you’re exercising and come with three pairs of ear tips to ensure a tight fit in your ears. The length of the neck cable can be adjusted so you don’t have any extra slack flailing about when you’re running and they’re waterproof, sweat proof and weather proof.

The W1 chip means they connect to your iPhone in an instant and the built-in battery lasts up to 12 hours on a single charge. The sound they produce is big and powerful, and of course, has plenty of bass. When it comes to workouts though, bass can be a good thing to keep you pumping. However they’re not going to be the best pair to use for everyday listening. 

The Powerbeats 3 Wireless are the ideal companion for workouts. Their wireless and lightweight design, W1 chip for longer battery life and a good Bluetooth range, and engaging sound will keep you going for longer.

Read the full review: Powerbeats 3 Wireless review: Beats and bass

Microsoft is testing self-service refunds on Windows 10 and Xbox games

Microsoft will soon introduce refunds on digital purchases made through the Xbox Games Store and Windows Store. The new feature was spotted by Reddit user gaymerRaver, who posted a screenshot on the Xbox One subreddit.

The self-service refund feature is included in the latest alpha release of the Xbox One Insider program and is in a pilot testing phase for select users.

• Xbox One S review: Great console and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, what else?

Xbox One and Windows games users will only be able to apply for refunds on full games and paid apps, not DLC, season passes or other add-ons. Users will have 14 days to apply for a refund, and games can only be played a maximum of two hours across all devices. Don’t start thinking you can try and complete the game and then get your money back.

Microsoft has said it reserves the right to block access for any users that abuse the refund program and the game or app has to have been available for a whole day before you can request a refund on it.

The introduction of the self-service refund program makes the Xbox the first console to offer refunds. Sales from the PlayStation Store and Nintendo eShop are final.

• How Xbox One backwards compatibility works: The Xbox 360 games list and more
• Official Xbox Project Scorpio specs revealed, most powerful console ever

There’s no word on when the refund feature will be rolled out to all Xbox and Windows 10 gamers, as it may depend on how Microsoft’s pilot testing goes. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we can all apply for some money back on games that don’t live up to their hype. 

The Morning After: Thursday, April 13th 2017

Despite its newly christened console, Nintendo is keeping the 3DS alive with a slew of new games in addition to new Switch titles (that’s what the pudding above is about). Meanwhile, the New York Auto Show shows us a mix of cars we do and do not want, and our Buyer’s Guide gets updated for Spring 2017. You need to buy things, right?

All the Nintendo news fit to post.Nintendo reveals some Switch games beyond ‘Zelda,’ and the 3DS lives

The latest Nintendo Direct offered relief for the Switch’s army of early adopters who have already conquered the shrines and guardians of Breath Of The Wild. Yes, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, ARMS and Splatoon 2 are now firmly in the games release calendar. More surprisingly, the 3DS got a whole batch of new titles coming in the next six months, including Kirby, Pikmin and Monster Hunter titles. The handheld gets a reprieve.

Cars.
Day 1 of the 2017 New York Auto Show

So far, the NY show has seen a number of unveilings, but the most interesting one is Lincoln’s Uber idea for well-heeled customers. Similar to the Dryver app, Lincoln Chauffeur is a ride-hailing system that summons a driver to take customers for a ride in their own car. Meanwhile, Acura squeezed important software updates into the 2018 TLX, Toyota has a road-warrior concept for yuppies, and Genesis has a luxury SUV concept that blends hydrogen and electric power.

Engadget Buyer’s Guide update
Here’s your spring shortlist of technology that’s worth purchasing

The weather is getting warmer, and you’re ready to do some shopping. We’ve reviewed plenty of new gadgets over the long winter, and a select few have made their way into our just-updated buyer’s guide. Whether you’re looking for a slim laptop like Lenovo’s Yoga 910 or noise-cancelling headphones like Sony’s MD1000x, we have some well-reasoned advice to dole out.

It has begun.
Burger King’s latest ad tries to piggyback on Google Assistant

In a move we should’ve seen coming, a new Burger King ad featured an actor yelling out “Ok Google, what is the Whopper burger?” in the hopes that it would activate a viewer’s phone, tablet or speaker to answering with additional info from a carefully curated Wikipedia entry. What actually happened is that the internet exploded with rage before the ad aired on TV, and it appears Google managed to filter the command out so that BK couldn’t get a free assist from its AI-powered service.

For developers, it’s basically a powerful PC.
Microsoft reveals details about its Project Scorpio developer kits

Despite a deep dive into Project Scorpio’s specs, we still don’t know what Microsoft’s evolved Xbox One console will look like. While we expect more information and details about games supporting it to arrive at E3, the company did open up about why developers will love the refreshed hardware. The dev kit itself looks like an Xbox One S, with vents on the side so they can be stacked. It also has an OLED display built-in to show off a game’s framerate, and a cable to transfer files onto the system quickly. Oh, and it has 24GB of RAM so devs can spend more time testing and less time waiting.

Qualcomm is in the courts a lot.
BlackBerry made more cash from royalties than phones

Between antitrust fines and lawsuits, Qualcomm’s patent strategy is already running into trouble… and things just got much worse. The wireless chipset maker has been given a preliminary order to pay BlackBerry $814.9 million in a dispute over royalty payments. The company made a total of $286 million in revenue last quarter — $814.9 million could cover most of the money it makes in a year.

Vegas gets a flagship gaming venue.
Las Vegas nightclub is turning into an eSports arena

Las Vegas is quickly becoming a hotbed for virtual sports. Allied Esports and Esports Arena have unveiled plans to turn a 30,000 square foot nightclub at the Luxor Hotel and Casino into the Vegas Strip’s first permanent eSports venue.

It also has some HoloLens DNA.
Acer’s $300 Windows headset bodes well for the future of cheap VR

For Microsoft, the future of computing is not only virtual reality but also “mixed reality,” the company’s term encapsulating AR and VR experiences. That started with HoloLens, but that costs $3,000. Microsoft has something else in mind for consumers: $300 VR headsets from PC makers like Dell and HP. Finally, we got to actually try one: Acer’s Windows 10 headset.

But wait, there’s more…

• Internet giants resist the FCC’s relaxed net neutrality rules
• Hackers could use an app to steal passwords by spying on your phone’s motion sensors
• ‘Rick and Morty’ enter the VR video game universe on April 20th

California will start charging electric vehicle fees in 2020

While some states are still offering incentives for electric vehicle buyers, California will soon become the biggest state to start charging fees for EV ownership. California is estimated to account for about half of the country’s EV sales, so the state is keen on recuperating some of the money it won’t be making from gasoline taxes.

The fees will take effect starting with 2020 model year plug-in vehicles, Autoblog reports. Those vehicles will have one-time $100 registration fee upfront, followed by and annual registration fee that varies based on the market value of the vehicle. On the low end, the fees are $25 for a vehicle valued at less than $5,000, but anyone with a $60,000-plus plug-in vehicle will be paying $175 per year to keep their tags up to date. On the other hand, California has the highest gas prices in the country, and even on the high end, those registration fees will end up costing less than three or four tanks of gas. Internal combustion fans won’t be getting a break either: California’s gas tax will hit 30 cents per gallon by November 2017. All told, California’s EV fees are expected to generate $52 billion over 10 years, which will be put back into the state’s budget for infrastructure repairs.

Elsewhere in the US, EV fees have already caught on. According to the Sierra Club, 10 states plus Washington, DC already have similar fees while eight others are currently considering similar legislation.

Via: Autoblog

Source: California Senate

The promise of self-driving cars starts with better ‘eye-sight’

San Francisco’s Pier 35 usually hosts cruise ship guests boarding and unboarding their giant floating hotels. It’s a cavernous building hundreds of meters long which actually makes it the perfect indoor facility for demoing what 22 year-old Luminar CEO Austin Russell hopes is the future of LiDAR. The company has developed a higher-quality laser sensor that just might make it the darling of the autonomous car world.

Laser-based LiDAR — along with cameras and radar — is one of the main components on most semi-autonomous vehicles. It creates a real-time three dimensional map of the area it’s scanning and relays that information back to the car’s self-driving system. The technology is so important that Alphabet’s Waymo is suing Uber because it believes the ride-hailing company is using some of its circuit board designs. So it’s a big deal to the future of driverless cars and Luminar thinks it can do better than what’s already on the market.

Inside the giant building, Luminar CTO Jason Eichenholz demos on a screen what current LiDAR systems see. The walls and columns are visible and when someone rides by on a bike, a few moving pixels track the movement. Then he turns on Luminar’s system and the difference is impressive. But it’s not just the quality of the items being scanned that’s important, it’s how far out the sensor sees. Luminar placed a black panel 200 meters away from the system, and it was clearly visible on the display. Typical systems see about 30 meters away and when a car is barreling down the highway at 70 miles per hour, the further a sensor can see, the better.

Luminar’s big jump in quality and distance took Russell five years and if you’re keeping score, that means he started the company at age 17. “I looked really deeply into the LiDAR space and saw there was a severe lack of innovation — for even the past decade — in terms of advancing the performance to any significant extent with any new architecture,” Russell said. So he built his own from the chip-level up.

Russell says his LiDAR has 50 times greater resolution and 10 times longer range than legacy systems and in the process he noted Luminar had to find “2,000 ways not to make this LiDAR.” After a closed demo in the giant building, Luminar drove me down San Francisco’s Embarcadero. The parade of cars, bikes and pedestrians were not just visible, but the detail of those people and machines was higher than I’ve seen on competing systems. It was a rainbow colored world of lines and shadows that when translated by a computer is the difference between an autonomous vehicle seeing a box and recognizing that mass of pixels in the distance as a small dog.

But is Luminar’s technology enough to overtake Velodyne, the established leader in the space? Unless an automaker has their own proprietary system, there’s a good chance the sensor on the top of that car is from Velodyne. Even Uber is using Velodyne while it’s building its own LiDAR system (the one that triggered the Waymo lawsuit). But unlike the five years it took Luminar to get its LiDAR just right, the company is moving quickly to get the sensor into the market.

While Luminar wouldn’t comment on the final price of their laser-based sensor, Russell did say that the company wants to create hardware that’s affordable for all makes of vehicles. He told Engadget. “we tried to be able to make this affordable long term for all types of cars, from the Honda Fit all the way up to the Bentley.” Meanwhile the high-end Velodyne HDL-64E costs about $75,000 with the less-expensive, but also less powerful Puck clocking in at about $8,000.

Luminar says it’s been working with 100 partners in the autonomous driving space (but won’t name any of them) and those companies will be receiving units very soon. Those partners will essentially beta test the system and share data and thoughts with Luminar. The company says it will then build and ship an additional 10,000 units from its Orlando facility by the end of the year. That’s incredibly aggressive. But if it can pull it off, it’ll be almost as impressive as the hardware they demoed on the streets of San Francisco.