The probe hones in on one of Tesla’s most eyebrow-raising decisions when it comes to its driver assistance package: the insistence on exclusively relying on camera sensors instead of LiDAR and radar like its competitors, which CEO Elon Musk has long derided as a “crutch.”

In 2022, the company went all-in on cameras, ditching ultrasonic sensors in its vehicles altogether — a decision that could prove to be a major mistake as it struggles to catch up with its competition and has now promised robust self-driving capabilities to owners who may lack the necessary sensor hardware.

  • originalucifer
    link
    fedilink
    571 month ago

    no waayyyy musk is talking shit out his asshole nooo waaay. who saw that comin except, ya know, everyone.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      251 month ago

      I don’t think it was a mistake. I think he just blatantly lied about its capabilities for years.

      • Bezier
        link
        fedilink
        English
        201 month ago

        I can honestly believe that he thought it’s gonna work. He knows fuck all about anything but he still makes his bad decisions with confidence and thinks he’s always right.

        • @Nastybutler
          link
          English
          151 month ago

          I can almost guarantee there was at least one engineer who tried to explain why ditching LIDAR was a bad idea, and he ignored them.

        • Dave.
          link
          fedilink
          English
          21 month ago

          Thought process goes like this:

          “What’s slowing us down, hardware-wise? These lidars are expensive and a pain in the ass. Let’s disrupt the status quo and ditch them and just use cameras. People drive around just fine with just stereo vision, after all. It might be hard but once we do it we’ll be way ahead of the competition.”