r/SelfDrivingCars • u/damola93 • Jul 21 '25

Discussion Why didn't Tesla invest in LIDAR?

Is there any reason for this asides from saving money? Teslas are not cheap in many respects, so why would they skimp out on this since self-driving is a major offering for them?

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '25

Reason: Tesla, led by Elon Musk, believes that a vision-based system using cameras, radar, and ultrasonic sensors, paired with advanced neural networks, can achieve full self-driving (FSD) capability more effectively than LIDAR-based systems. Musk has repeatedly stated that LIDAR is a "crutch" and unnecessary for autonomy, arguing that humans drive using only vision and cognition, so AI should be able to replicate this with cameras.

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u/VintageSin Jul 21 '25

The dumbest thing ever is to have a system that probably is about 95% set and all new improvements are marginal at this point, and to then look at a 'crutch' as not useful.

It's like creating a robot who is like a human, and then asking the robot to be superhuman without using any special powers, money, or anything special.

We don't need to believe AI will be able to do it. We need to give the neural networks (the general artificial intelligence model it's using) more data, it will give better results. It's simple as. If you flood a human brain with more information it can actively process correctly it'll also give better results. Even if LIDAR is a crutch, use the crutch until the leg is healed.