
Electric car startup Lucid is challenging Tesla’s anti-Lidar stance - elsewhen
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/08/tesla-rival-lucid-looks-to-one-up-autopilot-with-long-range-lidar/
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fossuser
I heard from a tesla engineer that they do use lidar to train their models,
but that they don’t see the value in deploying it to the fleet.

It’s worth watching the tesla event from about a year ago if you haven’t seen
it for their full position:
[https://youtu.be/Ucp0TTmvqOE](https://youtu.be/Ucp0TTmvqOE)

The quick notes are that our roads are set up for human vision and a truly
capable level 5 system will require human level interpretation of visual data
(at which point lidar becomes redundant).

He thinks lidar with non human level visual interpretation won’t get us to
full autonomy.

They see lidar as a short term half measure, a local maximum that’s a
distraction from what has to get done anyway.

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yyyk
Humans also have only two eyes, so lets limit the AV to two visual spectrum
only cameras, and while we're at it, use mainly the mirrors to look backwards
(no repositioning cameras so only one looks backwards! Humans can't do that).

That may be enough for Level 5, but the entire idea is to exceed human driving
capabilities (say, in dense fog). More sensors are an obvious advantage to
use. Obviously not enough by themselves, but not a distraction either.

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aeternum
More sensors might be an advantage but cost is always a factor. The money
spent on lidar might be better used on other cameras, CPU/GPU, or even safety
features unrelated to self-driving.

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yyyk
I don't think it would be expensive, the same economy of scale that affects
batteries would affect LIDAR (or any other sensor). Every other company can
afford it, most of them without Tesla's valuation.

Besides, I don't think that AV companies at the stage where they can optimize
for cost. For now they just need to get this thing working, and more data is
better. The first winner will get so much cash V2 could then be optimized for
cost.

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evgen
Most people don't remember, but accelerometers used to be very expensive kit
if you wanted to equip a drone or robot with one. Why did they get cheap? It
wasn't phones, it was automotive airbags. If LIDAR can be made to work
effectively then its price will be driven to the floor very quickly simply due
to volume of production.

