Digital information

Autonomous vehicle sensor data per hour

The total uncompressed digital information generated by all sensors on a self-driving vehicle in one hour, including cameras, lidar and radar.

Also known as: self-driving car sensor data per hour

How big is it?

4 TB of data

Defined uncompressed sensor-data volume · defined data model
Typical recorded range: 1 TB to 10 TB.

Scale illustration of Autonomous vehicle sensor data per hour, calibrated to its defined uncompressed sensor-data volume measurement.
The marked defined uncompressed sensor-data volume represents 4 TB.

A little perspective

About 4 times the data of 1 TB drive.

1 TB drive: A one-terabyte drive is a digital storage device capable of holding large amounts of computer data, such as documents, media and software.

Linear measure
BYTES OF DATA4 TB1 TB
01
Autonomous vehicle sensor data per hour4 TBDefined uncompressed sensor-data volume
02
1 TB drive1 TBData
Bar length represents bytes. The physical sizes of devices are schematic; encoding and compression affect file sizes.
Measurements, assumptions & sources +

Autonomous vehicle sensor data per hour

A defined 4 TB per hour aggregate from cameras, lidar, radar and other vehicle sensors before selective storage or compression. Sensor suite, resolution, frame rate and processing architecture dominate the total.

Defined examples — our methodology

The marked defined uncompressed sensor-data volume is calibrated. Unmeasured illustration details are representative.

1 TB drive

One trillion advertised bytes: approximately 931 GiB. This is not a loss of physical storage.

Defined examples — our methodology

The marked data is calibrated. Unmeasured illustration details are representative.

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Why this measurement?

Why we use 4 TB

For comparison, this page uses defined uncompressed sensor-data volume. This is labelled defined data model: an explicit comparison model rather than a claim that every example has the same value. The recorded range is 1 TB to 10 TB.

A defined 4 TB per hour aggregate from cameras, lidar, radar and other vehicle sensors before selective storage or compression. Sensor suite, resolution, frame rate and processing architecture dominate the total.

The identifying illustration and the numerical comparison remain separate. How calibrated comparisons work →

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Recorded properties

Autonomous vehicle sensor data per hour dimensions and measurements

PropertySelected valueRecorded rangeBasis
4 TB1 TB to 10 TBdefined data model

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Sources and method

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