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Do self-driving cars need lidar? Musk says that cameras are enough, but most disagree.
Tesla has staked its autonomous driving future on a relatively cheap solution: using cameras alone rather than a combination with the much more expensive lidar that its competitor, Google’s Waymo, employs to operate its self-driving cars.
It’s a stance that puts Tesla at odds with most Americans, new data shows.
According to new survey data from Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report, some 70% of Americans said in August that autonomous vehicles should employ both cameras and lidar, while 71% said the government should require companies to use both.
Just 3% of respondents chose “autonomous vehicles should only use cameras” as the answer closest to their view. Tesla CEO Elon Musk would appear to be among them.
That said, the vast majority of Americans also say they wouldn’t consider riding in a robotaxi in the first place, with 41% saying they’d never consider it and another 28% saying they are not considering it at this time.
Tesla is hoping that by keeping costs low for its cars, which are just a fraction of the price of Waymo’s, it will be able to scale its autonomous ambitions much more quickly and cheaply, since it says pretty much any of its cars on the road could potentially be self-driving with updated software.
The Takeaway
Musk earlier this year predicted “millions of Teslas operating autonomously” by the end of next year. So far Tesla’s Austin robotaxi program, which doesn’t have a driver but does have a safety monitor sitting in the passenger seat, has about 30 autonomous cars on the road, while Waymo operates closer to 2,000.
57 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford 2 Sep
I was kinda blown away by how many Waymo vehicles we saw in San Francisco a few weeks ago. Honestly, I'm not opposed to driverless cars. Not because I think they are safe, but because I am not convinced they are less safe than the average driver.
Here's my caveat. Owners of these cars should be held to account for any damage they cause. They will cause damage. I'm not convinced that will happen because of how deeply corporations have embedded themselves into the state.
Also, I think many people lump the kind of AI / Compute used in chatbots with that in these cars. They are very different. I have yet to ride in one of these cars but I'm not opposed to doing so in principle. But, I'd rather drive myself. Having ridden in cabs and other cars with other drivers is a big risk depending on the driver. The self-driving car is no different. I don't trust Elon. I'd need to see a pretty good track record to get in one of his cars.
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I test drove a Tesla cyber truck and the FSD was amazing!! All I can think about is taking my FSD on long road trips and having the luxury to sleep or read a book.
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Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report, some 70% of Americans said in August that autonomous vehicles should employ both cameras and lidar, while 71% said the government should require companies to use both.
Who is this group of people that even know what lidar is? I find it hard to believe that even 50% of people know what it is. I do think at least 70% will act like they do regardless of reality.
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Just read it as:
Survey Question: "Do you prefer that car companies use both A and B for safety, or just B?"
Respondent Answer: "They should use both A and B"
Garbage In Garbage Out
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Yup. And this explains most surveys. People don't understand so many things around them and even more so concepts like economics and political thought.
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The surveys are never explicit about tradeoffs and opportunity costs. GIGO
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I think they get what they want. Period
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