Internet giant makes big investment in US lidar sensor maker

Baidu Inc has added fuel to its effort to put driverless cars into mass production within five years with its multimillion dollar investment on Tuesday in a major US producer of lidar sensors, a key technology that helps the cars "see" their surrounding environment by using light to measure distance.

California-based Velodyne LiDAR Inc, which provides sensor technology that can help driverless cars, announced that it had completed a combined $150 million investment from Ford Motor Co and Baidu.