That is true. There is no Autonomous mode for the L3.
So here is the trick. The L3 is basically the same chip as the L0 (which does do Autonomous mode) however the L3 uses HISTOGRAMS.
The L3 sensor does not to process the histrograms - it can only collect them.
So the raw histrogram data is sent to your MCU for post processing. And it is your MCU that extracts the answer. That's in the API.
The good news is the answer is really good. The bad news is the chip cannot run Autonomously.
For Autonomous mode you have to use either the VL53L0X or the VL53L1X.
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