Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reiterated his stance that lidar and radar are not only unnecessary for autonomous driving but may actually make self-driving cars less safe, countering views shared by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
Khosrowshahi, speaking in a recent interview, argued that combining cameras, radar and lidar remains the best path toward “superhuman safety” in autonomy. “Solid state LiDAR is $500. Why not include lidar as well in order to achieve superhuman safety,” he said. “All of our partners are using a combination of camera, radar and LiDAR, and I personally think that’s the right solution, but I could be proven wrong.”
Musk responded that Tesla’s experience shows the opposite. “Lidar and radar reduce safety due to sensor contention. If lidars/radars disagree with cameras, which one wins? This sensor ambiguity causes increased, not decreased, risk. That’s why Waymos can’t drive on highways. We turned off the radars in Teslas to increase safety. Cameras ftw,” he wrote on social media.
Tesla has pursued a vision-only system for its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and recently launched robotaxi pilots in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area using the approach. Musk has argued that FSD is improving quickly and in many situations performs better than human drivers.