Musk May Have Just Saved Tesla.
Musk seems to be fixing Tesla’s biggest weakness.
There is one technology that Elon Musk has a vendetta against. Lidar. According to Musk, “Anyone relying on lidar is doomed. Doomed. Expensive sensors that are unnecessary.” As such, Tesla’s FSD (Full Self Driving) doesn’t use these laser-based 3D mapping sensors; in fact, it only uses cameras to understand the world around it. This goes against almost the entire self-driving industry, which widely believes lidar to be essential for any fully autonomous self-driving cars. As such, there is a huge question of whether Tesla could ever create a safe self-driving car with its current approach, which is profoundly worrying considering Musk is betting the entire company’s future on unlocking this technology before anyone else. But, it seems Musk may have realised the error of his ways, as Tesla just purchased a whopping $2 million worth of lidars from Luminar. This shift in ethos might seem minor, but it could save Tesla. Let me explain.
When I say Musk has bet the company entirely on self-driving, I mean it! Tesla has scrapped its highly anticipated Model 2 in favour of a robotaxi on the same platform. It’s also halted gigacasting development, which could have made all Tesla models even cheaper to manufacture. Musk has even fired core talent, such as the head of battery development, head…
