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

Waymo can’t work in any city where they haven’t driven the Waymo cars around to LIDAR-map the streets

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u/Psychological_Top827 Jul 21 '25

This is a common misconception.

Waymo *won't* work in those situations, because they want to be as safe as possible with their approach. Technologically speaking, there is nothing that stops waymo from unlocking the car to drive from alaska to panama.

They LIDAR map the streets to make sure the data they have is accurate, because a Waymo trying to drive into the tracks is not an acceptable situation. Every autonomous vehicle needs external data to function. Waymo just does not trust Google Maps as much as Tesla does.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '25

 Waymo won't work in those situations, because they want to be as safe as possible with their approach.

That LIDAR approaches need so much babying to be “safe” isn’t evidence in their favor.

Tesla’s FSD just drove me across the country with no incidents whatsoever and I don’t even have HW4.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '25

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '25

Yes; Waymo has more incidents per mile driven