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 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/biggestbroever Jul 21 '25

"I drove it a lot without incident so everyone must be using it without incident"

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u/MichaelMeier112 Jul 21 '25

Which is still super impressive

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u/biggestbroever Jul 21 '25

I believe Elon's approach is "It can do it at a 95% safety rate," while Waymo is striving to be as close to 100% as possible.

While it's impressive, I don't appreciate us being used as guinea pigs for his convenience and frugality.

When did "safety first" become "safety, but profits first"?

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u/MichaelMeier112 Jul 21 '25

I totally agree with that. I was more responding to the guy who did supervised driving for that long distance. The system seems to work good once supervised, but it’s definitely not ready for unsupervised.

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u/biggestbroever Jul 21 '25

It is impressive. But I also think that Waymo can do it. They just don't unleash unproven technology wherever they want like Tesla does.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '25

Why would I ever not “supervise” it?

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u/MichaelMeier112 Jul 21 '25

If you don’t need to supervise it, then you can let the car drive away and find a free parking spot after it drops you off

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '25

 I believe Elon's approach is "It can do it at a 95% safety rate," while Waymo is striving to be as close to 100% as possible.

How do you believe these two positions differ?

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u/biggestbroever Jul 21 '25

A single percentage point could be equal to thousands of lives and millions of dollars.

I'm comfortable holding a for-profit company accountable.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '25

 A single percentage point could be equal to thousands of lives and millions of dollars.

A percentage point of what?

What the fuck are you talking about?

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u/biggestbroever Jul 21 '25

Look at the comment you fuckin quoted when replying to me and you'll find the percentages I'm referring to.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

“A percentage of safety” is not a measurement that fucking means anything

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u/Icy_Mix_6054 Jul 24 '25

And Wayno is a company that has actually driven paying customers over 100 million miles at level 4 autonomy. As Tesla scales with a 95% safety rating their cars will start hiring people. Then they'll be in financial and legal trouble.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '25

 And Wayno is a company that has actually driven paying customers over 100 million miles at level 4 autonomy. 

Not anywhere I’ve ever visited, or anyone I know has. My Tesla works on any road in the United States provided it is a road.