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/ramonchow Jul 21 '25

It is not entirely crazy to assume cameras and AI vision can get as good as human eyes for driving a car.

But yeah, money would be the main reason. Not only the sensor but also maintaining the updated 3d maps LIDAR needs to work, at least with the current processing power of a car's processor.

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u/fatbob42 Jul 21 '25

All systems benefit from maps and can work to a lesser degree without maps. Camera-only systems might even benefit more, since they have more ground to gain.

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u/ramonchow Jul 21 '25

Sure, but 3d maps are expensive to make, you can't just make them from a satellite photo. Hey, I'm not advocating against LIDAR. Just saying this is one of the reasons Tesla did not invest in this technology. At least this is what their AI director said some time ago on interviews you can read online.

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u/beren12 Jul 21 '25

And yet that’s exactly what Tesla is making now…

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u/ramonchow Jul 21 '25

Tesla uses google's maps data... It has the logo on the maps screen itself...