That pod on the roof of Volvo’s new electric SUV is essentially just shooting out a bunch of high-powered infrared beams, determining the distance of the vehicle’s surroundings by measuring the time taken for reflected light to return to the sensor. If you point your phone’s camera directly at those beams, you’ll observe some strange phenomena, like what’s happening in the image above. What you’re seeing is a laser frying pixels on one of the device’s image sensors.

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It should be said that the risk here is inherent to lidar technology, and has nothing to do with Volvo’s specific implementation on the EX90. In fact, earlier this year, the automaker even issued a warning against directing external cameras at the vehicle’s lidar pod for the very reasons discussed. “Do not point a camera directly at the lidar,” one support page admonishes in no uncertain terms. Unfortunately, while that sort of information might be clear to owners (the ones who crack open their vehicles’ manuals, anyway), this is something the entire public ought to be aware of, especially as semi-autonomous cars with lidar systems become more common on our streets.

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The company specifically called out “close-ups” as the problem, meaning that our phones should be safe with distant shots, and also offered a tip for those of us who may need to capture such images. (Thank you!) “Using filters or protective covers on the camera lens can help reduce the impact of lidar exposure,” Volvo said. “Some cameras are designed with built-in protections against high-intensity light sources.”

Do you get that? Take photos with your lens cap on! Now I have to test my filters for infrared transmission. And cell phones? Good luck with that.

The sensor Volvo uses in the EX90 is understood to be eye-safe, even if it’s not necessarily camera-safe. We’re no experts on laser imaging, so we’ll defer to Lidar News, which published back in January that “[t]he human eye is mostly sensitive to light in the visible spectrum (roughly 400-700nm) and less sensitive to [near-infrared] light. Because 1550nm is at a safer wavelength for the human eye, [the EX90’s laser] can operate at higher power.” Higher power translates to longer range, which is obviously critical for vehicles built to achieve any level of self-driving.