Elon Musk Doesn't 'Hate' LiDAR, Says It's Good For Space Vehicles — Not So Much For Those On The Road


20-Year Pro Trader Reveals His "MoneyLine"

Ditch your indicators and use the "MoneyLine." A simple line tells you when to buy and sell without the guesswork. It’s a line on a chart that’s helped Nic Chahine win 83% of his options buys. Here's how he does it.


Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk on Monday reiterated his criticism of LiDAR technology on roads.

What Happened: The CEO said that he did his best to warn people that LiDAR isn’t ideal for cars. “Roads are designed for biological neural nets & eyes, so digital neural nets & cameras will work best,” Musk wrote.

He was responding to an X.com user’s post from May where they noted that Li Auto’s CEO Li Xiang has become a vision-based full self-driving (FSD) believer, probably leading him to drop LiDAR in upcoming vehicle models. The user was seemingly citing a local media report.

“I don't intrinsically hate that technology,” Musk clarified about LiDAR, while noting that his rocket manufacturing company’s Dragon spacecraft uses LiDAR for docking with the international space station. Earlier this week, on Sunday, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft called Endurance on the crew-7 mission docked to the station using the tech.

Did my best to warn people that LiDAR isn't optimal for cars. Roads are designed for biological neural nets & eyes, so digital neural nets & cameras will work best.

I say this even though Dragon uses LiDAR for docking with Station, so I don't intrinsically hate that technology.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 28, 2023

Why It Matters: In 2019, Musk slammed LiDAR as a "fool's errand" while adding that anyone relying on the technology is doomed. However, several players including Alphabet, Inc.’s self-driving unit Waymo and General Motors Corporation’s Cruise continue to use LiDAR on their autonomous vehicles.

On the other hand, Tesla uses camera vision and neural net processing, collectively called Tesla Vision, to deliver the company’s Autopilot and full-self driving as well as some active safety features. While Tesla vision requires solving real-world AI, it is fundamentally superior to LiDAR, Musk said on Saturday.

Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

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20-Year Pro Trader Reveals His "MoneyLine"

Ditch your indicators and use the "MoneyLine." A simple line tells you when to buy and sell without the guesswork. It’s a line on a chart that’s helped Nic Chahine win 83% of his options buys. Here's how he does it.


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