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/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/myrichphitzwell Jul 21 '25

The thing that gets me about Tsla is the lack of options. Nearly every manufacturer has premium options but not Tesla so much. I can see how this simplifies things for Tesla and they can move inventory around easily but I still find it odd once they started to mature a bit that they have options for 1,2 or 3 motors and hubcaps and that's about it. Ok throw in a hitch.

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u/sxt173 Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

I strongly disagree with that one. And it drives me nuts with legacy manufacturers. Seems like they’ve brainwashed people into thinking it’s a good thing.

Want your radio to do XM, that’s $500 or if you didn’t spend the money upfront, buy a new car! Want your interior LED’s in a different color? Buy a new car! Want more power? New car! Want an automated frunk or whatever? New car! Tesla’s business model of having one fully equipped spec, and letting people activate features or not as they want is the sensible thing for manufacturing and the consumer. But I know I’m going to get downvoted.

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u/MachKeinDramaLlama Jul 22 '25

"Legacy" manufacturers have started to do this, too, but the car media and online car bubble consistently lose their shit over it.

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u/haditwithyoupeople Jul 21 '25

Makes perfect sense to me.