Tesla’s self-driving capabilities are now a Looney Tunes cartoon joke
Embracing cameras over lidar has proven to be a major hurdle for Tesla’s self-driving dreams.
Lidar has long been considered the gold standard of self-driving technology. Most car companies use the technology, alongside cameras, radar, and AI, to fully assess a vehicle’s environment. Except for one notable exception: Tesla.
Elon Musk has always had it out for lidar, calling it a “a crutch,” “a loser’s technology,” and “too expensive.” After experimenting with lidar in early autonomous driving prototypes, Musk went a different direction. He ditched radar from Tesla’s production models in 2021, against the criteria of his own engineers, opting instead for his camera-based AI “Tesla Vision” system, which relies on cameras and AI alone. This has proven to be one of his biggest mistakes when it comes to Tesla’s future.
