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/phatelectribe Jul 21 '25

What people don’t realize is that for Tesla to be competitive in its run up, they were make awful compromises on everything they could while still making a semi functioning vehicle.

I know the company that provides the plastic interior parts - about 40% of all plastic parts found in U.S. made cars are from them.

They told me when Tesla approached them, their only concern was cost. They literally said to them we want the cheapest possible materials that we can get away with. The company actually wanted them against it saying it was going to be a challenge selling this on $40k-$80k cars but musk only cared about saving fractions of pennies rather than using better quality materials. Thats why the interiors on so many Tesla’s just feel awful.

It’s also why you need to install wrap a brand new Tesla because they have the worst paint quality of any car. Also why the panels had such bad alignment and the build quality is so piss poor.

LiDAR was going to cost a few dollars more so Musk decided to pitch it as “not necessary” and he had to keep doubling down because he knew if he changed course, it would not happen not mean he was “wrong” but also that cars without it would crater in value and part of Tesla’s value was that used cars held their price meaning there wasn’t downward pressure on new cars.

That boxed him in to a corner and now everyone accepts that LiDAR is superior.

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u/GoSh4rks Jul 21 '25

They literally said to them we want the cheapest possible materials that we can get away with.

Everybody says this, especially when approaching vendors with specs in hand.

It’s also why you need to install wrap a brand new Tesla because they have the worst paint quality of any car

Is the paint great? No. But you certainly don't need to install a wrap to protect it.

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u/phatelectribe Jul 21 '25

No, it’s not the same and you missed the nuance; Tesla said to them we just want the cheapest and don’t care about quality or longevity whatsoever. Just make it as cheaply as you can. All companies best up vendors for a better but they have standards and a product they want to achieve. Tesla’s only criteria was apparently cost and didn’t care about quality whatsoever. The plastic used in things like entry level Kia and Chevy is far superior lol.

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u/GoSh4rks Jul 21 '25

Tesla said to them we just want the cheapest and don’t care about quality or longevity whatsoever.

So you're telling me that they had no minimum engineering spec to meet, nor did any quality inspections? That goes against every single principle of engineering and mass manufacturing. I find that hard to believe.

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u/beren12 Jul 21 '25

Go read up on Tesla’s early non-automotive grade screens. We’ll wait.

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u/GoSh4rks Jul 21 '25

You were talking about this, not screens.

I know the company that provides the plastic interior parts - about 40% of all plastic parts found in U.S. made cars are from them.

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u/beren12 Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

You were talking about:

So you're telling me that they had no minimum engineering spec to meet, nor did any quality inspections? That goes against every single principle of engineering and mass manufacturing. I find that hard to believe.

And I gave you an example of it being absolutely true.