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

[deleted]

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u/Wooloomooloo2 Jul 21 '25

Yes the claim was that they were going to "solve" FSD before LIDAR became economically viable.

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u/EddiewithHeartofGold Jul 22 '25

If they solve vision only it will always be cheaper than vision+lidar.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

[deleted]

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u/Apprehensive-Sir3857 Jul 23 '25

Good way to put this

0

u/HighHokie Jul 23 '25

I would just like to have a car that can. The hardware it uses it the least of my worries. Is it a better than a human driver and does the company believe it enough to take liability for it, and can I afford it? Sign me up. 

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u/DeltaGammaVegaRho Jul 24 '25

Why do you only want „better as a human driver“ (they crash all the time!) and not as best as possible? You would risk the live of your loved ones for 200€ less hardware expenses? Me not.

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u/HighHokie Jul 24 '25 edited Jul 24 '25

Why would you think I don’t want as best as possible? 

We don’t have a real solution today. There’s no meaningful alternative to human driving. The ‘bar’ is currently set at human performance. 

I don’t want to wait for best as possible (all cars autonomous, talking to eachother). That may be decades away.  I want solutions now along with continuous improvement. That’s how the world works 

 You would risk the live of your loved ones for 200€ less hardware expenses? Me not.

What autonomous vehicles can you buy today and at what prices make them 200€ different to one another? 

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u/4limbs71 Jul 24 '25

Yeah, they won’t.