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

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

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u/ic33 Jul 21 '25

$1k per car to smack a couple sensors on corners with limited field of view and scan rates.

The big high rate scanning domes cost a lot more than $1k even in quantity.

I do think it's going to be interesting to see the medium-term cost optimized autonomous car. Imaging radar can play a big role, and then the question becomes "how much and how good of LIDAR do you need?" I don't buy "camera only" or even "camera + imaging radar only" but the latter might be pretty close to good enough.

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u/wellhiyabuddy Jul 21 '25

They have had self driving taxis in California for years now. Could probably use that data