
Is Elon Musk Wrong about Lidar? A Quantitative Study - ayw
https://scale.com/blog/is-elon-wrong-about-lidar#hn
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ecpottinger
Wow, calculating 3D data using only one camera.

Did you notice we use two eyes to judge distance? Did they note there can be
even more than two cameras on a car?

I think if more than one camera is used you can get very accurate 3D data.

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ayw
1\. While stereo depth estimation would work in theory, none of the self-
driving cars actually have camera configurations that allow for stereo depth
estimation (see here: [https://electrek.co/wp-
content/uploads/sites/3/2016/10/tesla...](https://electrek.co/wp-
content/uploads/sites/3/2016/10/tesla-second-gen-autopilot-sensors-suite.png))

2\. Stereo depth estimation is quite unreliable in practice because it
requires you to match up pixels between the two images very precisely (1-2px
difference can be a large disparity in distance), so it is not reliably used.

