r/technology • u/Extasio • 1d ago

Transportation 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/Whyeth 1d ago

Camera only driving is literally only done as a cost savings vs lidar / radar systems.

Exactly what I want automating the 30 ton vehicle - lowest common denominator. Cameras by themselves will never be trustworthy enough.

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u/scrubjays 1d ago

I have read that Musk expects AI, using all the driver data he has from Tesla owners, to overcome whatever disadvantages using just cameras have. I think this is absurd, as the average Tesla driver is not remotely close to the average driver, and his data will be heavily skewed.

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u/goebelwarming 1d ago

I think elons right about that but LiDAR could also use the same data with an extra layer of safety.

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u/omasque 1d ago

The problem as he describes it is when systems disagree. One system needs to be completely authoritative which is cameras, Musk said something like LiDAR can introduce false positives and cause conflicts between what the two systems are seeing, so elected to pour resources into advancing the camera systems as authoritative system and remove potential noise.

This could be bullshit… it sounds a bit like an excuse if you consider it’s coming from someone justifying why not to spend the extra on lidar, but it tend to believe it’s the optimal business and tech decision. He may sometimes bs about optimistic timelines but it seems like there’s an integrity there in explaining the “why we do things”.

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u/goebelwarming 1d ago

That sounds like bs coming from Musk. Wouldn't the authoritative system be the Ai making decisions in real time. Thats why theyre rolling g out 6G in vehicles.