4 ms·

Tesla has been pushing camera-only autonomous driving (ditching LIDAR) since well before the chip shortage. I would assume this is part of the same drive.

_Microft 5y ago
Tesla did not ditch LIDAR, they never actually used it (not in production cars at least?).
LeoPanthera 5y ago
Tesla is ditching radar, not lidar.
chronic83027 5y ago
As of May 2021, Tesla publicly announced they’re using lidar to develop FSD. https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/24/22451404/tesla-luminar-lidar-elon-musk-autonomous-vehicles https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/24/22451404/tesla-luminar-li...
- _Microft 5y ago
  This might be for improving their camera-based vision system by collecting both camera inputs and accurate ground-truth data via LIDAR to train the system with.
- rjsamson 5y ago
  They haven’t announced anything like that - they’re just using LiDAR rigs to validate data from their vision based approach, particularly distance. It actually even mentions something about it at the bottom of the article you referenced.
  - chronic83027 5y ago
    My claim: > they’re using lidar to develop FSD. Your comment: > they’re just using LiDAR rigs to validate data from their vision based approach In 2019, Elon called lidar a crutch: https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/22/anyone-relying-on-lidar-is-doomed-elon-musk-says/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/22/anyone-relying-on-lidar-is...
- MetaWhirledPeas 5y ago
  No public announcement. They merely have some lidar equipment for testing. I'd be shocked if they haven't already had lidar units for years. After all, you can't compare your approach to lidar if you don't have a lidar unit to compare to.
dragontamer 5y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20210312022048/https://www.tesla.com/blog/upgrading-autopilot-seeing-world-radar https://web.archive.org/web/20210312022048/https://www.tesla... I'm pulling this from archive.org, because Tesla has removed this blogpost from their servers. As recently as March, they kept this pro-Radar blogpost up. Only now are they purging this data from their archives. Fortunately, the Internet Archive remembers the history, so they won't find it so easy to rewrite history in their favor.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Pretty sure they can have it wiped from the archive as well so if you want to hold on to it better do it somewhere else.
- bpodgursky 5y ago
  That post is from 2016. From an engineering blog. Do you really expect, or even want, companies to go back and purge all old engineering blogs which they now disagree with? By calling out an old post as evidence that they are "pro-lidar", you're the one forcing companies to try to curate the public history of their development process. That's not healthy. Don't do that.
  - camjohnson26 5y ago
    It’s radar, not lidar, and the point is that Tesla thought the post was contradictory enough to remove it, while all the other content from 2016 is still there.
- camjohnson26 5y ago
  That seems incredibly blatant, given that all the other posts from 2016 are still available.
- stoddur 5y ago
  You meant March 2016? I would not call that recent in the self-driving vehicle world

_Microft 5y ago

Tesla did not ditch LIDAR, they never actually used it (not in production cars at least?).

LeoPanthera 5y ago

Tesla is ditching radar, not lidar.

chronic83027 5y ago

As of May 2021, Tesla publicly announced they’re using lidar to develop FSD. https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/24/22451404/tesla-luminar-lidar-elon-musk-autonomous-vehicles https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/24/22451404/tesla-luminar-li...

_Microft 5y ago
This might be for improving their camera-based vision system by collecting both camera inputs and accurate ground-truth data via LIDAR to train the system with.
rjsamson 5y ago
They haven’t announced anything like that - they’re just using LiDAR rigs to validate data from their vision based approach, particularly distance. It actually even mentions something about it at the bottom of the article you referenced.
- chronic83027 5y ago
  My claim: > they’re using lidar to develop FSD. Your comment: > they’re just using LiDAR rigs to validate data from their vision based approach In 2019, Elon called lidar a crutch: https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/22/anyone-relying-on-lidar-is-doomed-elon-musk-says/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/22/anyone-relying-on-lidar-is...
MetaWhirledPeas 5y ago
No public announcement. They merely have some lidar equipment for testing. I'd be shocked if they haven't already had lidar units for years. After all, you can't compare your approach to lidar if you don't have a lidar unit to compare to.

dragontamer 5y ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20210312022048/https://www.tesla.com/blog/upgrading-autopilot-seeing-world-radar https://web.archive.org/web/20210312022048/https://www.tesla... I'm pulling this from archive.org, because Tesla has removed this blogpost from their servers. As recently as March, they kept this pro-Radar blogpost up. Only now are they purging this data from their archives. Fortunately, the Internet Archive remembers the history, so they won't find it so easy to rewrite history in their favor.

jacquesm 5y ago
Pretty sure they can have it wiped from the archive as well so if you want to hold on to it better do it somewhere else.
bpodgursky 5y ago
That post is from 2016. From an engineering blog. Do you really expect, or even want, companies to go back and purge all old engineering blogs which they now disagree with? By calling out an old post as evidence that they are "pro-lidar", you're the one forcing companies to try to curate the public history of their development process. That's not healthy. Don't do that.
- camjohnson26 5y ago
  It’s radar, not lidar, and the point is that Tesla thought the post was contradictory enough to remove it, while all the other content from 2016 is still there.
camjohnson26 5y ago
That seems incredibly blatant, given that all the other posts from 2016 are still available.
stoddur 5y ago
You meant March 2016? I would not call that recent in the self-driving vehicle world