Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk reiterated his criticism of LiDAR on Wednesday but explained that he is not fundamentally against the technology.
What Happened: “Obviously, humans drive without shooting lasers out of their eyes. I mean, unless you’re Superman…. humans drive with eyes and a neural net and a brain neural net, sort of biological… the digital equivalent of eyes and a brain are cameras and digital neural nets or AI,” Musk said in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
Musk said that LiDAR is simply the “wrong solution” for self-driving cars on roads. However, his rocket manufacturing company SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft continues to use it for docking with the space station, he said.
Why It Matters: Musk has previously criticized LiDAR, terming it a "crutch". None of the company’s sold vehicles have lidars. In 2022, the company also removed ultrasonic sensors from its vehicles to rely solely on cameras.
However, not all are in agreement with Musk’s decision to rely solely on cameras for autonomous driving.
"…you really do need significantly more hardware than Tesla is putting in the vehicles to build a robotaxi that's not just as safe but especially safer than a human," Zoox co-founder Jesse Levinson opined in October while adding that there is a need for sensor data despite advancements in AI to protect against camera malfunctions and ensure fully safe rides.
Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous ride-hail company Waymo continues to use LiDAR in its robotaxis.
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