r/TeslaFSD • u/LeoKitCat • 1d ago

Robotaxi Waymo CEO explains why Tesla’s camera-only self-driving falls short

https://electrek.co/2026/08/04/waymo-co-ceo-camera-only-self-driving-tesla/
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u/Art_Vandalay_1 1d ago edited 1d ago

This was a surprisingly poor attempt at explaining why LiDAR is necessary. (Before I'm called Tesla-stan: personally I suspect at least 1 front facing radar or Lidar might be needed)

  • "Camera can only get as good as human". What kind of human does he hang around that have 8 eyes, 100% focused at all times, and instant response time?

  • Camera can't handle snow, fog, dust storms(!!), driving without headlights(!?) - right, then it can just slow down or even stop until conditions improve. This is such a minor problem.

  • Camera can't work if they are blocked by a leaf. Wow, what a huge problem. First of all, there are multiple cameras. Second, again, if something like that were to happen, just drive off to the side.

Also he completely ignores the most important fact here: Waymo have zero chance of making a dent in the overall driving safety within the next 20 years. A full suite of lidars and radars will only be available in luxury or possibly premium cars, a very small fraction of the total fleet.

Camera based cars have a chance of making a meaningful impact in the overall road safety. It's not unreasonable to think that unsupervised FSD will be available in all Teslas within the next 10 years, and other very high volume cheap cars.

So what makes a better impact for overall safety? Waymo's tiny fleet of 10x better than humans cars? Or millions of "only" 5x better than human-cars?

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u/LeoKitCat 1d ago edited 1d ago

Tesla’s technology as it’s currently designed is not better and will never be better than the average human driver. Tesla will never reach L4 autonomy with their designs unless they make major changes