Tesla is now spending millions on this technology
Car lidar maker Luminar confirmed in its financial report that Tesla was its largest customer last quarter, accounting for more than 10% of its revenue in the period.
Given that Luminar's quarterly revenue was $21 million, Tesla's contribution was more than $2.1 million. Luminar and Tesla have not commented on the situation.
An interesting thing about this news is that Elon Musk has previously repeatedly criticized lidar and preferred conventional cameras. He called the use of lidars in cars a “fool's idea” and also noted that any automakers relying on laser rangefinders are “doomed.”
«People drive using their eyes and biological neural networks, so it makes sense that cameras and silicon neural networks — this is the only way to achieve a universal self-driving solution», — Musk said in October 2021.
Most recently, Musk confirmed his position on lidar. The CEO said Tesla electric vehicles rely only on camera-based surveillance systems for driver assistance functions: «No lidar, radar, ultrasound. Nothing».
Musk also said that he is fine with lidars, but simply opposes their use in electric vehicles. The Tesla CEO said he personally led a project at SpaceX to create lidar sensors to aid navigation.
In 2021, a photo of a Tesla Model Y with lidar sensors attached to the roof went viral on the internet. That same year, Tesla reportedly entered into a partnership with Luminar for testing and development.
It is currently unclear how Tesla will use this technology and whether it will eventually return to the company's cars.
A mask about autopilot and its capabilities.