
Elon Musk: “Anyone relying on Lidar is doomed.” Experts: Maybe not - feross
https://arstechnica.com/?p=1523325
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checktheorder
The article didn't seem to go into regulatory issues at all. I'm not qualified
to speak to the technical merits of LIDAR versus computer vision systems. But
coming from a business planning background, and considering the fact that
global rules surrounding LIDAR's use in consumer products can be charitably
called "a patchwork", it seems to me that computer vision systems would be far
easier to implement in a product designed for global export than LIDAR
systems.

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matt-attack
I actually agree and have been saying this for years. Cars need to model as
much as possible on the way humans drive. No one will expect an autonomous car
to be able to do things that an alert and expert driver can achieve. The
entire road system is built around the premise that it can be navigated using
vision alone, with no a priori knowledge of its layout.

You can drop me onto a roadway undergoing construction with temporary lanes
that are diverted to the left side of the road, all in a suburb of Boston, a
city I’ve never been to, at night in a rain storm. You and I can safely drive
in this condition if alert and focused, while relying only on vision.

My premise is that any system that requires anything else, e.g. map data, lane
boundary data, lidar, is doomed to fail in these edge case scenarios.

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sabertoothed
Clickbaiting headline. Hotz and Levandowski are also experts and they agree
with Musk. More truthful headline: Some experts say, but then again other
experts say.

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Analemma_
Hotz isn’t an expert, he’s a loudmouth tinkerer who never produced anything
working before NHTSA shut him down. I’ve never heard Levandowski comment on
the long-term necessity of lidar, but actions speak louder than words:
Otto/Uber definitely used lidar (actually, the entire lawsuit with Waymo was
over their lidar tech. Why would Levandowski have risked everything stealing
it if he didn’t think it was necessary?)

Elon really is alone in claiming that lidar isn’t needed for self-driving.

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sabertoothed
You seem very angry for some reason that I do not understand. Your emotional
response is not backed up by facts.

Hotz can certainly be considered an expert as founder and president of
commai.ai. Whether he is a loudmouth or not is less relevant.

The remark by Levandowski can be found here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNgEG5rCav4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNgEG5rCav4)

Whether these guys are ethical etc. is not of interest for this question.

> Elon really is alone in claiming that lidar isn’t needed for self-driving.

No, precisely not.

