For most emerging technologies, the performance is expected to be constantly improving while the cost is also expected to be constantly falling. These same rules apply to the automotive optical sensor market. A compression in this cycle can be partially attributed to the scaleup and widespread use of optical sensors that have taken hold in large scale consumer devices like the smart phone. Due to these factors and others, automotive optical sensors that use similar technologies are gaining performance increases in a rapid fashion while cost targets are becoming within reach. Examples will be discussed that show such trends as applied to optical component requirements and the various advancements that make these improvements possible.