Automotive LiDAR has quietly moved from research labs to the roofs and grilles of everyday cars, and it is now colliding with something even more ubiquitous: the smartphone camera. The same laser pulses that help a vehicle see the road can, under the wrong conditions, permanently scar a phone’s image sensor in a fraction of a second. I want to unpack how that happens, why it is avoidable, and what simple habits can keep your camera safe without forcing you to stop filming cars altogether.
The risk is not theoretical. Viral clips of damaged phones, public warnings from carmakers, and technical explanations from imaging experts all point to the same conclusion: some LiDAR systems can concentrate enough energy on a tiny patch of silicon to burn pixels for good. The good news is that this kind of damage usually requires a very specific alignment and exposure, which means careful framing, distance, and a bit of awareness are often all it takes to protect your camera.
How a viral Volvo clip turned LiDAR into a camera hazard
The turning point for public awareness came when a video of a Volvo EX90 being filmed up close showed the phone’s camera suddenly developing bright, permanent streaks and spots. In the clip, the SUV’s roof‑mounted unit is visibly sweeping the scene, and when the beam lines up with the phone, the sensor is effectively branded, leaving the owner with a ruined main camera. Reports on the incident describe the LiDAR as the clear culprit, with the pattern of damage matching the scanning path of the laser rather than any physical impact or software glitch.
Coverage of the Volvo EX90 case notes that the car’s laser system is designed to detect objects hundreds of meters away, which means its pulses are tightly focused and relatively high in intensity at close range, especially when they are funneled through a phone’s lens stack directly onto the sensor. One detailed account cites Volvo confirming that the high‑intensity beam in its new model can damage iPhone camera modules if the phone is pointed straight into the emitter at short distance, a warning that has been echoed in enthusiast discussions on high‑intensity laser safety.
Why LiDAR lasers and phone sensors are a bad mix
At its core, LiDAR works by firing rapid laser pulses, timing how long they take to bounce back, and building a 3D map of the surroundings from those measurements. Each pulse is narrow and concentrated, which is ideal for precise distance readings but problematic when that beam is focused again by a camera lens onto a microscopic patch of silicon. A modern smartphone sensor packs millions of pixels into a few square millimeters, so when a LiDAR pulse is imaged onto it, the energy is deposited into an area far smaller than the original beam cross‑section.
Imaging specialists have explained that this concentration can heat up the sensor locally, overwhelming the tiny structures that convert light into electrical signals and effectively burning them out. A technical breakdown on LinkedIn describes how LiDAR’s rapid laser pulses can literally burn camera pixels when they hit the sensor directly, noting that the damage is permanent because the affected photodiodes and microlenses are physically altered rather than just overexposed. In that analysis, the author spells out that LiDAR works by firing rapid laser pulses to measure depth, and that those same pulses can permanently damage your camera pixels if they are imaged sharply onto the sensor.
Real‑world cases show the damage is permanent
The viral Volvo EX90 clip is not an isolated curiosity but part of a pattern of reports where phones pointed at active LiDAR units end up with ruined cameras. In one widely shared story, a driver filming a semi‑autonomous vehicle noticed that, after a brief moment when the LiDAR beam swept across the frame, the phone’s main camera started showing bright vertical lines and discolored patches that persisted in every photo and video. The pattern did not change with software resets or different apps, which strongly indicated a hardware failure rather than a glitch.
Technical commentary comparing these incidents to staring directly into the Sun makes the stakes clear: the sensor is effectively toast because the laser energy has exceeded what the delicate structures can tolerate. One analysis notes that it is generally advised to avoid pointing cameras at powerful lasers, and that LiDAR can permanently damage your phone’s camera if the beam hits the sensor directly, a risk that grows as more semi‑autonomous vehicles roll out with roof‑mounted scanners. The same discussion emphasizes that Lidar can permanently damage your phone’s camera in a way that no software update can reverse.
Not every LiDAR is equal, but your phone cannot tell the difference
It is important to stress that not all LiDAR systems are created with the same power levels, wavelengths, or beam patterns, and many are engineered to meet strict eye‑safety standards. Some units use lower‑power emitters or spread their energy over a wider area, which reduces the risk to both human vision and camera sensors. Others, particularly those designed to see hundreds of meters ahead in all weather, rely on more intense pulses and narrow beams, which are more likely to cause trouble if a camera is placed directly in their path at close range.
The problem for anyone holding a phone is that there is no easy way to tell which category a given car’s LiDAR falls into just by looking at it. A compact sensor tucked behind a dark panel on a bumper can be just as potent as a spinning unit on the roof, and your camera’s automatic exposure system will happily keep recording until the damage is done. That is why some consumer advisories now warn that LiDAR systems in modern vehicles, such as the Volvo EX90, can damage smartphone cameras if filmed head‑on, urging drivers and bystanders alike to be cautious around LiDAR systems in modern vehicles rather than trying to distinguish safe from risky models on the fly.
How the damage actually shows up on your photos
When a LiDAR pulse does cross the line from safe to destructive, the symptoms on a phone camera are distinctive. Instead of a temporary flare or streak that disappears when you move the phone, users report fixed bright lines, clusters of dead pixels, or oddly colored blotches that appear in the same place in every shot. These artifacts often align with the scanning direction of the LiDAR, creating vertical or horizontal bands that cut across the frame regardless of lighting or subject.
Imaging experts point out that this pattern reflects the way the sensor is read out line by line, so a sweeping beam can overheat specific rows or columns of pixels as it passes. A detailed explanation of laser damage to cameras notes that, for a laser to damage a camera, it needs to hit the sensor directly and deposit enough energy to cause local overheating, which is exactly what happens when a LiDAR beam is focused by the lens. That same analysis emphasizes that a laser pointed across the front element without reaching the focal plane is far less dangerous, but once it is imaged onto the sensor directly, the odds of damaging the camera sensor rise sharply.
Why your eyes are safer than your camera
One of the most counterintuitive aspects of this story is that a LiDAR system that can wreck a phone camera is still considered safe for human eyes under normal conditions. Eye‑safety standards are based on how much energy the retina can absorb without injury, taking into account blinking, pupil constriction, and the fact that people rarely stare motionless into a bright source for long. LiDAR designers tune their systems to stay within those limits, often using wavelengths that are less harmful to biological tissue while still being effective for distance measurement.
A camera sensor, by contrast, does not blink, flinch, or look away. When you frame a shot of a car with active LiDAR, the phone’s optics can concentrate the beam onto a tiny area and hold it there for as long as you keep recording, effectively bypassing the protective mechanisms that keep your eyes safe. Commentators who compared the effect to staring into the Sun were not suggesting that LiDAR is as dangerous to people as solar radiation, but rather that the sensor can be overwhelmed in a similar way, with the key difference that the camera has no instinct to avert its gaze from a bright Sun‑like source.
Simple habits that dramatically cut your risk
The encouraging part of all this is that LiDAR‑related camera damage usually requires a perfect storm of proximity, alignment, and exposure time, which means a few simple habits can make that storm very unlikely. The first is distance: staying several meters away from a car’s LiDAR unit, rather than pressing your phone right up to it, reduces the intensity of the beam at the sensor and makes it harder for the optics to focus the energy into a tiny spot. Even stepping back a few paces when filming a vehicle with a visible roof‑mounted scanner can significantly lower the risk.
Framing also matters. Avoid centering the LiDAR emitter in your shot, especially when using the main wide or telephoto cameras that have larger apertures and more direct optical paths. If you must capture the sensor itself, consider using a zoom lens from farther away so the beam occupies a smaller portion of the frame, or briefly switch to a different angle rather than holding a static close‑up. Practical guides on the subject now advise people to keep LiDAR units out of the direct line of sight of their phone cameras whenever possible, echoing warnings that Your Car Lidar Can Destroy Your Phone if you insist on filming the emitter head‑on at close range.
What the viral warnings are actually telling you to avoid
As clips of damaged phones have spread, so have short, punchy warnings that sometimes sound more alarmist than they need to be. One widely shared headline urges people, in capital letters, not to point their phones at certain cars because it could destroy the camera, a message that has been repeated in social feeds and comment threads. Behind the dramatic phrasing, the core advice is straightforward: do not film active LiDAR units from a few centimeters away, especially in low light when the system is working hardest and your phone’s exposure is wide open.
More measured breakdowns of the same incidents explain that the risk is highest when you are close enough for the LiDAR beam to fill a significant portion of the frame and when you hold the shot long enough for multiple pulses to hit the same sensor region. One analysis of the Volvo EX90 case, for example, notes that the phone was positioned directly in front of the roof‑mounted scanner and kept there while the beam swept repeatedly across the lens, a textbook setup for damage. That is why some advisories now bluntly tell people, “Don’t Point Your Phone At These Cars, It Could Destroy Your Camera,” a phrase that has been attached to the Volvo EX90 and similar models in coverage that links the warning to Don’t Point Your Phone At These Cars, It Could Destroy Your Camera style guidance.
How carmakers and testers are responding
The growing visibility of LiDAR‑related camera damage has not gone unnoticed by carmakers and testing organizations. Volvo has already acknowledged that the high‑intensity laser in the EX90 can harm nearby phone cameras under specific conditions, and that admission has prompted broader questions about how to balance sensor performance with the realities of a world full of smartphones. Some engineers argue that as long as systems meet eye‑safety standards, additional camera‑safety measures should be a matter of user education rather than design constraints, while others see an opportunity to tweak beam patterns or duty cycles to be more forgiving to consumer electronics.
Independent testers have also started to factor camera safety into their evaluations of advanced driver assistance systems. In one widely viewed clip, a new 2025 Volvo EX90 is introduced as “a car fit for a movie villain” precisely because it has a laser beam on the roof, and the testers go on to discuss how that feature interacts with everyday devices. That segment, shared on TikTok, underscores that the same hardware that makes the car feel futuristic can also pose a risk to phones if misused, a point that has been amplified as a new 2025 Volvo EX90 circulates in consumer advice videos.
Why this problem will not disappear on its own
Even if current headlines fade, the underlying tension between powerful automotive sensors and fragile phone cameras is not going away. As semi‑autonomous features become more common, more vehicles will carry LiDAR units capable of scanning hundreds of meters ahead, and those units will share roads and parking lots with millions of people eager to film everything they see. The more LiDAR emitters there are in the wild, the more chances there are for someone to line up a perfect, destructive shot without realizing it.
Analysts looking at this trend argue that the industry needs to treat camera safety as part of the broader conversation about how advanced driver assistance systems coexist with the rest of the tech ecosystem. One detailed piece on the subject notes that, with the gradual rise of semi‑autonomous vehicles, there will likely be more incidents of LiDAR damaging phone cameras, even if each individual case remains rare. That same report recounts a driver who only avoided a costly repair because he had Apple Care, a reminder that not everyone will be so lucky when Lidar Can Permanently Damage Your Phone and warranties do not always cover laser burns.
Practical rules of thumb before you hit record
Given all of this, I find it useful to boil the advice down to a few practical rules that anyone can remember at the curb. If you see a car with a spinning or fixed sensor on the roof or a distinctive module embedded in the grille, assume it might be LiDAR and give it some space when filming. Stay at least a couple of meters away, avoid framing the emitter dead center, and do not linger on a static close‑up, especially at night or in dim garages where the system is likely to be active.
It also helps to think of LiDAR units the way you would think of any other bright, focused light source. You would not stare at a laser pointer through binoculars, and you should not point a high‑resolution phone camera straight into a scanning laser that is designed to see hundreds of meters down the road. Some consumer advisories now explicitly warn that vehicle LiDAR can damage your phone camera, urging people to “shoot with caution” and treat these systems with the same respect they would give any other concentrated beam. That message, summed up in headlines like Warning, Vehicle, Can Damage Your Phone Camera, is less about fear and more about adopting a few simple habits so your next great car video does not end with a trip to the repair counter.
The bottom line: awareness beats panic
It is tempting to react to stories of burned sensors by swearing off filming any car with a visible scanner, but that would be an overcorrection. The documented cases of LiDAR destroying phone cameras share a common pattern of very close range, direct alignment, and sustained exposure, conditions that most casual clips of traffic or street scenes do not meet. For everyday shooting, where cars are several meters away and the LiDAR unit is just one small element in a wider frame, the risk is far lower than the most dramatic warnings might suggest.
At the same time, pretending the risk does not exist would ignore the clear evidence from damaged phones, manufacturer acknowledgments, and technical analyses. Consumer pieces that summarize the issue for busy readers, such as a Jul News explainer that urges people to make sure their car does not destroy their phone camera, are ultimately advocating for informed caution rather than alarm. That is the balance I try to strike as well: recognize that LiDAR can, in specific circumstances, ruin a phone camera, but also recognize that with a bit of distance, smart framing, and respect for the hardware, that outcome is entirely avoidable, a point underscored in warnings that tell drivers and bystanders alike to Don, Point Your Phone At These Cars, It Could Destroy Your camera only if you ignore the basic precautions.
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