Elon Musk Throws Shade At LIDAR For Driverless Cars, Calls It A Crutch

LIDAR is one of the foremost technologies being used in developing self-driving technology right now, with big names like Google’s Waymo and Uber frantically trying to claim supremacy using the tool. In his usual renegade fashion, however, Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently scoffed at LIDAR and called it a crutch. His own cars use advanced machine learning and camera technology to drive autonomously.

Musk made the pronouncement during an earnings call with investors on February 7th, The Verge reports. The Tesla CEO had to defend the company’s current strategy in developing driverless technology that excludes LIDAR, saying that it keeps them from hitting a ceiling.

“In my view, it’s a crutch that will drive companies to a local maximum that they will find very hard to get out of,” Musk said before later adding, “Perhaps I am wrong, and I will look like a fool. But I am quite certain that I am not.”

This is in stark contrast to how many other companies seem to view the technology, with both Uber and Waymo currently locked in a heated legal battle over LIDAR, among other things. Tesla’s other competitors are also looking to the technology to power their own vehicles’ autonomous functionality.

Musk remains convinced that the biggest challenge that needs to be solved in order to truly refined self-driving technology is passive optical recognition. This is basically where cameras are able to recognize objects as they are as the vehicle continues to move through different terrain.

This is currently where Tesla is stuck, especially since its split with computer vision firm Mobileye, Futurism reports. The divorce occurred after a fatal accident that involved a Tesla Model S owner turning on the Autopilot. Subsequent investigations have revealed that the tragedy was not actually the company’s fault but was due to the driver ignoring the warnings given out by the car.