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In my opinion, Tesla's decision to not use LIDAR shows their system is more advanced than the competition's, rather than it being dated. I have two reasons: -

In my opinion, Tesla's decision to not use LIDAR shows their system is more advanced than the competition's, rather than it being dated. I have two reasons: - LIDAR is extremely expensive! The LIDAR unit that Google uses costs $80,000 by itself [0], whereas the entire hardware package that Tesla uses is $8,000 [1]. - Path planning, in my personal experience, is significantly easier given millimeter-level accurate readings on millions of points every second, than with 60fps video, even from multiple cameras. The way I see it, it appears that Tesla has been able to achieve comparable (or better) progress on self-driving cars with significantly lower-cost hardware. The name of the game is making self-driving cars the default option, and that can't happen when the self-driving hardware by itself costs as much as a luxury car. [0] http://articles.sae.org/13899/ http://articles.sae.org/13899/ [1] http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/20/13346512/tesla-self-driving-autonomous-enhanced-autopilot-cost http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/20/13346512/tesla-self-drivi...

mikeyouse 10y ago
Those Google lidar numbers are not reflective of anything that would ship. Much of what Google is doing is capturing all of the ambient data so each subsequent car knows more about the environment than the one that preceded it. You can buy simple solid state lidar units for under $1,000 and there are several in the pipeline targeting $100/unit. It's much more likely to see those on any mass market product. Delphi is probably the largest auto supplier in the world and they recently invested a significant amount of money into a silicon valley company producing a solid state lidar who are targeting a $250 price point: https://www.google.com/amp/www.forbes.com/sites/lianeyvkoff/2016/08/24/quanergy-joins-the-unicorn-club/ https://www.google.com/amp/www.forbes.com/sites/lianeyvkoff/... If lidar makes self driving safer, there is no reason at all not to use it. It's worth noting that in the aftermath of the death of a Tesla driver whose autopilot system couldn't see a white semi trailer, Tesla's sensor supplier reiterated the need for lidar and redundant sensors: https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2016/07/12/tesla-autopilot-technology-sensor-lidar/%3Fsource%3Ddam https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2016/07/1...

mikeyouse 10y ago

Those Google lidar numbers are not reflective of anything that would ship. Much of what Google is doing is capturing all of the ambient data so each subsequent car knows more about the environment than the one that preceded it. You can buy simple solid state lidar units for under $1,000 and there are several in the pipeline targeting $100/unit. It's much more likely to see those on any mass market product. Delphi is probably the largest auto supplier in the world and they recently invested a significant amount of money into a silicon valley company producing a solid state lidar who are targeting a $250 price point: https://www.google.com/amp/www.forbes.com/sites/lianeyvkoff/2016/08/24/quanergy-joins-the-unicorn-club/ https://www.google.com/amp/www.forbes.com/sites/lianeyvkoff/... If lidar makes self driving safer, there is no reason at all not to use it. It's worth noting that in the aftermath of the death of a Tesla driver whose autopilot system couldn't see a white semi trailer, Tesla's sensor supplier reiterated the need for lidar and redundant sensors: https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2016/07/12/tesla-autopilot-technology-sensor-lidar/%3Fsource%3Ddam https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2016/07/1...