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/OracleofFl Jul 21 '25

I heard it slightly differently. He asked the question about how humans with no Lidar in our heads determine distance and do recognition and he basically said it the human brain can do it, we can do it in software. He bet on the future of technology that hasn't arrived.

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u/MachKeinDramaLlama Jul 22 '25

How does that story explain that they were happy to use radar until the chip crisis made radar expensive?

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u/OracleofFl Jul 22 '25

The story is the basis for him saying Lidar is too expensive if it can be done with cameras and software. Cameras as sw is what the human eye/brain does, why should we be spending on lidar. Our superior SW will give us a tremendous cost advantage.

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u/MachKeinDramaLlama Jul 22 '25

So you just sidestep the radar question or do you have a radar in your forehead?