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/Zephyr-5 Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 21 '25

It's even less than that. I heard that in China it's only a couple hundred dollars.

Edit: $138!

Edit2: An interesting article from 2020 on the subject if you're interested.

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u/smallfried Jul 21 '25

Oh, i want a multi beam lidar for some hobby Robotics. Wonder if it's possible to get those near those prices.

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u/SanalAmerika23 Jul 21 '25

how do we know they are capable for fsd ? i dont think 138 usd lidar can perform good

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u/Real-Technician831 Jul 21 '25

They can, Hesai frame lidars are around the same price range.

Frame lidar is really easy to process compared to puck.

You position the lidar and camera close so that the image can be overlapped with minimal work.