Elon Musk Says Tesla Doesn’t Need Lidar Because ‘People Don’t Shoot Lasers Out Of Their Eyes’ After YouTubers Put His Cars Through Wylie E. Coyote Tests
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Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk doubled down on his longtime skepticism of LiDAR technology on Thursday following the videos of YouTubers testing his EV vehicles against a ‘Wile E. Coyote’ fake wall challenge.
What Happened: Musk took to X, formerly Twitter, to repeat a key pillar of Tesla’s self-driving vision: cameras and AI are all you need.
“People don’t shoot lasers out of their eyes to drive,” Musk wrote, sharing an old clip from Tesla’s 2019 Autonomy Day. “Just try Tesla self-driving today, which just uses cameras and AI, and you will understand.”
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In the video, Musk called LiDAR a “fool’s errand,” saying, “Anyone relying on LiDAR is doomed. Doomed! Expensive sensors that are unnecessary… like having a whole bunch of expensive appendices.”
Unlike competitors such as Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Waymo and General Motors Co.’s (NYSE:GM) Cruise, Tesla has famously avoided using LiDAR, opting instead for a vision-based system.
However, in a twist, a 2024 earnings report from LiDAR manufacturer Luminar revealed that Tesla had quietly become its biggest customer. The EV giant accounted for over 10% of Luminar’s first-quarter revenue, totaling more than $2 million.
Why It’s Important: Musk’s latest statement on LiDAR came just weeks after a YouTube video by Mark Rober, known for his science and engineering experiments, surfaced.
The video tested Tesla’s camera-only Autopilot/FSD system against a LiDAR-based setup powered by Luminar’s technology.
The results indicated that the LiDAR system outperformed the camera-based approach, mainly due to its superior performance in fog and rain, where visibility is reduced.
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