Should the default sample_lidar_replay initialize a TimeSensor

Autonomous Vehicles DRIVE AGX Thor DRIVE AGX Thor General
1

DRIVE OS Version: 7.0.3

Issue Description: Should the default sample_lidar_replay initialize a TimeSensor?

Following up on my previous question TimeSensor::addData() Buffer full, draining data I don’t understand the reason why the sample_lidar_replay is initializing a TimeSensor when it is executed on the Thor platform .. more importantly why does it say “SensorFactory: Override default timeSensor with the user passed one” when I didn’t actually provide or set any time sensor information as shown in the logs below:

[08-02-2026 07:57:41] SensorFactory::createSensor() -> time.nvpps, nvpps-device=/dev/nvpps0
[08-02-2026 07:57:41] Found driver: time.nvpps
[08-02-2026 07:57:41] TimeSensorNVPPS: initialized with no UTC time reference.
[08-02-2026 07:57:41] output-timestamp parameter is deprecated and will be removed in next release
[08-02-2026 07:57:41] SensorFactory: Override default timeSensor with the user passed one
[08-02-2026 07:57:41] EndpointNVPPS: started on /dev/nvpps0

Can anyone explain to me what is the role of the TimeSensor within the sample_lidar_replay? is there any knobs that one could use to control this time sensor or disable it?

4

I notice these are logs in other sensor samples like sample_camera as well. It looks like default behaviour. Let me check with engineering team if these can be disabled.

7

Could you please provide any update for this topic?

8

Dear @ussama.naal ,

Ignore this. This messages comes when anytime sensor is created. Time sensor is created by default as part of SAL initialization for system-wide timestamp synchronization.

It is needed as SAL keeps a global time reference . so sensors (cameras, lidar, etc.) can convert hardware timestamps (e.g. TSC) to a common time domain (host/PTP)

No.