- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Coaching Changes
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
re: Rivian exec: Elon and Tesla's LiDAR hesitancy isn't 'fully explainable'
Posted on 10/23/25 at 11:59 am to UltimaParadox
Posted on 10/23/25 at 11:59 am to UltimaParadox
quote:
Not using LIDAR is truly a cost-cutting measure that Elon has mentioned in the past. He believes that the cost does not scale, not accounting for the fact that every other company will incorporate LIDAR and drive the costs down over time.
Feels like Elon pushed himself into this corner, and cant get his way out after he said that camera only approach is superior. Which is completely dumb, when everyone else is now using Cameras and LIDAR.
Eventually he will cave and start incorporating LIDAR so he can actually have self-driving cars. Not supervised driving cars.
100% He's just being stubborn right now. Not sure how you sell the idea to a consumer that cameras only is better than LIDAR and cameras.
0
Posted on 10/23/25 at 12:03 pm to wesfau
Elon is a visionary that puts his money to work
He then takes what his engineering teams tell him and regurgitates it
He then takes what his engineering teams tell him and regurgitates it
Posted on 10/23/25 at 12:17 pm to stendulkar
I cannot share certain confidentialities due to an NDA, but I know FOR A FACT, that Tesla is looking at a version of LIDAR using a new extremely high resolution SPAD (single photon amplification detector) that measure the laser in trillionths of a second. Imagine, in the dark, able to see so well that at a distance of 1000 meters that the license plate can be ready from the data. It's only a few hurdles away before these are fully developed and ready to build to automotive standards.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 12:21 pm to stendulkar
The same Rivian who could go belly up any day now?
Posted on 10/23/25 at 12:35 pm to UltimaParadox
quote:
thanks you literally proved my point, they were not at threat for bankruptcy, even without the loan to build a factory in the USA.
Rivian’s $4.4 billion debt (all long-term) was manageable, with low near-term repayment pressure. Without the DOE loan, Rivian would avoid adding $5.975 billion in principal debt, but it would also lack funds for the Georgia plant, forcing reliance on existing cash or new financing.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 12:48 pm to jnethe1
Elon has mentioned that with lidar and cameras they can send mixed signals to the car, I trust their testing on that. I encourage everyone to YouTube their newest FSD version 14. Nobody is close to what they have going on. People will wake up when it’s everywhere and cheaper. Call me a fan boy, I’m just not asleep to what is going on. Their latest version is already 2-3x safer than humans drive, and mentioned in their earnings call yesterday their newest chip design will be 40x better than their current version.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 2:24 pm to stendulkar
This is been a contentious issue within Tesla among their engineers. It came down to a cost issue. Not just the hardware but all the additions dev cost to suppress hallucinations from differing data signals. There’s still a large portion of their team that thinks LiDAR + visual is the best way to go.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 2:37 pm to pankReb
quote:
the guy who had to get $6.6 billion from the government just to stay afloat after the blueprint for success had already been revealed is criticizing the business decisions of the guy who created said blueprint for success.
To be fair, that blueprint also included billions in government handouts.
ETA - y'all remember before Elon changed his politics he was known around here as a welfare queen?
Crazy how much things have changed in the last 5-10 years. This post was edited on 10/23/25 at 2:39 pm
Posted on 10/23/25 at 3:07 pm to saint tiger225
quote:
To be fair, that blueprint also included billions in government handouts.
Oh absolutely. But when the blueprint has already been made….it shouldn’t take billions of handouts to churn out E-lemons.
Posted on 10/23/25 at 3:11 pm to stendulkar
A large portion of Isaacson's biography of Elon focuses on this very topic.
Most Tesla employees disagree with Elon but he wants Tesla independent of LiDAR to differentiate from the competition and also to push the boundaries of his companies' tech for the robots and eventually for colonizing Mars.
Elon is always thinking of Mars. Its why he is also developing robots, a tunnel boring company, solar and batteries, etc. Everything he does on earth is a puzzle piece for his life's mission of multi-planetary civilisation.
Most Tesla employees disagree with Elon but he wants Tesla independent of LiDAR to differentiate from the competition and also to push the boundaries of his companies' tech for the robots and eventually for colonizing Mars.
Elon is always thinking of Mars. Its why he is also developing robots, a tunnel boring company, solar and batteries, etc. Everything he does on earth is a puzzle piece for his life's mission of multi-planetary civilisation.
This post was edited on 10/23/25 at 3:14 pm
Page 4 of 4
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News