Sep. 5 at 2:33 PM
$SPAIF $TSLA $GOOG
In an earnings call earlier this year, Musk dismissed LIDAR laser systems, radar, and all manner of other tech his competitors are using to detect hazards in self driving, saying, “It is obvious that our solution with a relatively low-cost inference computer and standard cameras can achieve self-driving,” Musk said. “No lidars, no radars, ultrasonic. Nothing.”
Earlier, he’d dismissed LIDAR as “a crutch.”
Yet on that same earnings call, Tesla revealed it had bought so much LIDAR the previous quarter that they were responsible for a full 10% of their supplier’s revenue. Ongoing performance issues are no secret.
Waymo’s solution is to flood the field of vision with overlapping tech. They claim their sixth-gen robotaxi will feature a suite of “16 cameras, 5 lidar, 6 radar, and an array of external audio receivers (EARs).” That’s a lot of tech, and doesn’t even include GPS, which is notoriously inaccurate for anything inside 15 metres.
https://equity.guru/2024/08/28/could-sparc-ai-spai-v-be-the-solution-to-self-driving/