A method of modelling a scanning distance sensor determining a set of detections is determined as if obtained by the sensor when scanning a field of view of the sensor, wherein each of the detections corresponds to a different line of sight originating from the sensor and comprises information about the orientation of the respective line of sight and about the distance of a respective target point from the sensor, the target point being the point in space where the line of sight first crosses any of the objects at the respective point in time. The method includes that the set of detections is modified by estimating the effect of sequentially scanning the field of view in discrete time steps on the detections and inversely applying the estimated effect to the set of detections.