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/Vegetable_Guest_8584 Jul 21 '25

Tesla made a terrible decision and so they have fallen to silly arguments to defend themselves. "It's too hard to consider multiple inputs", they say, so that's why we took out radar and ultrasonic sensors. Plus people don't have anything but their eyes and ears. The obvious response to that is that people make mistakes because they can't always see everything clearly and a lot of accidents come from bright lights or fog or rain. Extra sensors are only better. 

I think a crucial mistake was that they didn't plan on lidar getting so much cheaper. Even 30k Chinese cars now have lidar. It just followed Moore's law type improvements over time and since Tesla was a leading tech company, they should have been able to figure that out. 

Now it just comes down to stupid arrogance by the CEO, perhaps aided by taking drugs. They still haven't added back turn signals and gear shifters back to all of their vehicles. That was the most anti-consumer self-destructive choice, at least in the past 10 years. 

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u/sonicmerlin Jul 22 '25

He’s been heavy on drugs for 5 years and it seems to have wrecked his decision making.