Tesla CEO Elon Musk has often expressed his opinions about Lidar in the past, but in recent days EV Maker’s frontman has continued to discuss the weaknesses of the technology and why his company has been dependent on cameras.
He also mentioned Suit’s boundaries of Waymo’s capabilities.
Tesla gave up completely using radar next to his camera suite a few years ago, something it referred to as “Tesla Vision” at the time. For its vehicles, it has only used cameras since this transition, and Musk has never once thrown itself away from this strategy.
Earlier this week he discussed the dependence on Lidar and Radar of other companies:
“Lidar and radar reduce safety due to sensor improvement. If Lidars/radars disagree with cameras, which winner there?
This sensor -clue results in increased, not reduced, risk. Therefore, Waymos cannot drive on highways.
We turned off radars in Teslas to increase safety. Cameras FTW. “
Elon Musk claims that Lidar and Radar make self -driving cars more dangerous
He continued with this tale again and mentioned Waymo specifically on another occasion.
Musk’s focus this time was on Waymo vehicles and their abilities in unfavorable weather, specifically snow, rain or even dust storms, and how Lidar is struggling to navigate under these conditions.
He said:
“Lidar also doesn’t work well in snow, rain or dust due to reflection spread. That’s why Waymos stops working in any heavy rainfall. As I have said many times, there is a role for Lidar in some circumstances and I personally flood the development of Lidar for Spacex Dragon Docking with Space Station.
Lidar also doesn’t work well in snow, rain or dust due to reflection spread. Therefore, Waymos stops working in any heavy rainfall.
As I have said many times, there is a role for Lidar in some circumstances, and I personally monitored the development of Lidar for Spacex …– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2025
Tesla’s approach is significantly different from most companies. Waymo, Motional, Aurora and Zoox use all Lidar for their self-propelled programs, while Tesla continues to rely on its only camera approach.
Musk even said Model S and Model X used a Tesla-developed high resolution radar, but it couldn’t “compare with passive optical (cameras) so we turned it off.”
Tesla developed high -resolution radar, and hardware is actually present in model S & X, but it just can’t compare with passive optical (cameras) so we turned it off.
As a side note, all military systems that depend on radar “stealth” technology, toast in a modern conflict, …
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2025