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It’s a longstanding and vigorous debate — will robotaxis want lidar, or are cameras alone enough? In fact, we now have a number of firms now working robotaxis in China, the US, and elsewhere. These all use lidar. Nonetheless, Elon Musk has mentioned for a couple of decade that robotaxis shouldn’t want lidar, and Tesla’s robotaxi strategy relies on “vision” solely, even chopping radar from the system. Nonetheless, Tesla robotaxis aren’t but operational, as “Full Self Driving” hasn’t reached the mandatory stage for that.
Li Auto CEO Li Xiang lately chimed in along with his opinion on the matter, providing a bit of extra “local insight.”
Li Xiang mentioned, “I believe that if Musk had ever driven on different highways in China deep in the night, he would have chosen to keep a lidar in the front as well.” His argument is there are too many hazards which are too arduous to see with cameras alone. Particularly, “China is different from the US If you regularly drive at night in China, you’ll see large trucks with broken taillights, and the large trucks with broken taillights may be even parked right on the main road,” Li acknowledged.
Xiang added that lidar can detect objects as much as 200 meters whereas cameras are solely good for as much as 100 meters.
Musk has lengthy argued that lidar just isn’t solely an additional expense, however simply overcomplicates the system and isn’t wanted. You probably have two totally different sorts of sensors, the core mind of the system has to find out which to concentrate to at any given time. In the event that they each see one thing, however cameras determine it as a possible obstruction and lidar doesn’t, which does the mind reply to? If it’s the opposite manner round — cameras determine it as nothing to fret about however lidar thinks it must be prevented (like a parked semi truck in the midst of the highway) — which does the mind reply to?
Nonetheless, others argue that the totally different sensors and redundancy are crucial for ensuring the automobiles are as protected as attainable. Cameras gained’t catch the whole lot, and neither will lidar, however collectively they need to see extra. That’s Xiang’s perspective as properly. “I think it’s very important because our cars are family-oriented, and the safety of everyone’s life is very important. That’s the fundamental reason we continue to keep lidar and will still keep it in future models,” the Li Auto CEO famous.
Tesla’s future is closely depending on Full Self Driving (FSD) attending to a excessive sufficient stage solely utilizing cameras. Different robotaxi firms have been incrementally enhancing and rolling out business robotaxi providers in an increasing number of cities, however they aren’t made to be broadly operational throughout the nation or throughout the globe. Musk’s argument is that when FSD is nice sufficient, it may be used principally in all places. And that can instantly jack up the worth of hundreds of thousands of Tesla automobiles. That’s why Tesla inventory (NASDAQ:TSLA) is valued far above another automaker’s. Tesla’s market cap is increased than that of a number of different automakers’ mixed — principally all primarily based on the concept that Tesla will crack the AI code and unleash these robotaxis internationally. Nonetheless, that each one hinges on whether or not “vision only” is admittedly enough and robotaxis don’t want lidar and even radar to be adequate. One might say it additionally relies on how shortly all of those different robotaxi firms in operation at present can broaden and produce down prices. If there’s a broad, mature robotaxi market in play by the point Tesla will get FSD working properly sufficient, how a lot will Tesla automobiles get a price increase?
A whole lot of questions stay to be answered. And within the meantime, the lidar vs. no lidar debate rages on.
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