Technology

59298 readers

5120 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

202

On self-driving, Waymo is playing chess while Tesla plays checkers (arstechnica.com)

submitted 5 months ago by jeffw@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

118 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] TheRealKuni@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The LiDAR you have on your vacuum isn't going to cut it as a safety relevant component onboard your car. Automotive-grade LiDAR are on another price range. Development for such sensors is quoted separately from the part price, and it costs millions of $.

Obviously, but my Ford Escape PHEV also has LiDAR and, despite being the highest trim level, cost FAR less than a Tesla. It doesn’t do FSD, obviously, but it still has LiDAR. And radar. And will do level 2 self driving enough that if I’m driving in traffic I’m more managing the car than driving it.

There is zero good excuse for not including LiDAR in Teslas.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 8 points 5 months ago

There is a reason. It's just not a good one. It's profit.

I don't believe Tesla ever intended on having full self driving. That's just an idea Musk sold people to boost confidence in the company. The promise sold vehicles and boosted stock value, making Musk a shit load of money.

What difference would it make if they were fully devoted to FSD with the best technology they could get? It still wouldn't work perfectly and wouldn't be allowed alone everywhere probably, and they would have made less profit during that period. In what time frame would it actually pay back?

[–] synapse1278@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I can't seem to find information about the Ford Escape having a LiDAR, it's not on the spec. Sheet on Ford's website and in the news it's only about prototypes.

I am not saying Teslas should or shouldn't have LiDARs. I am just curious. I only know about Audi, Mercedes, Honda and Hyundai currently selling cars with LiDAR used for ADAS. They might be more Chinese OEMs selling cars with LiDARs, buy Ford, it surprises me.

[–] TheRealKuni@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I may be wrong then. There are a bunch of sensors above the windshield behind the rearview mirror, it could be that LiDAR isn’t one of them.

[–] synapse1278@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Probably cameras and rain sensor :)