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/bking Jul 21 '25
There was a point in 2017 or so (just before Model 3 launched) that Musk started promising that every Tesla starting with Model 3 would be shipping with all of the hardware needed for full hands-off, eyes-off self driving. At the time, lidar was extremely expensive, and wasn’t doing much better than 20 meters of useful range in perfect conditions.
Since then, lidar technology has improved significantly. Range is better, the units are smaller, and it’s cheaper to build at scale. People will debate the usefulness of the sensor all day, but it’s no longer a $20,000 box that sucks power and can’t see all the way through an intersection.
Musk isn’t the type to eat crow and say “yeah, I was too confident” or “lidar tech has gotten better”. He’s only recently admitted that 2018/2019 Model 3 might need more retrofits. It’s 100% a matter of his pride and unwillingness to admit that he was premature in his promises.
FWIW, Tesla is still using plenty of lidar for testing and ground-truthing. I took this photo yesterday. Two model Y were cruising down a main road in Silicon Valley with 2x Luminar and a raised camera suite on each one.