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Tesla and Lidar

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When Tesla boss Elon Musk attacked Lidar technology’s use of in-vehicle navigation as a “fool’s errand” back in 2019, this was seen as a major setback for the future use of the technology. Musk’s continued comments on Tesla and Lidar have been quoted many times. In 2020 he said that its use in cars was “freaking stupid.”

From an article in CDO Trends by Lachlan Colquhoun.

“It’s expensive and unnecessary,” he said. “You have expensive hardware that’s worthless on the car.”

Lidar stands for light detection and ranging, and while it was invented in the 1960s with the invention of lasers, it was in the development of autonomous vehicles that many hoped the technology would come into its own.

Negative comments from the leader of a visionary company that was also leading the world of autonomous vehicles were not what Lidar technology needed.

Tide is turning

A few years later, however, it was quietly revealed that Tesla had become the biggest customer of Luminar, a major Lidar manufacturer.

The Luminar earnings report released in May showed that Tesla contributed over 10% of the company’s first quarter 2024 revenues, totaling more than USD2 million.

Those numbers are not huge, but they could indicate that the tide is turning in Lidar’s favor.

“The emergence of Lidar in the lower-priced segments reflects the rapid fall in the cost of the technology.”

According to a recent report from analysts IDTechEx, the global market for automotive Lidar will reach USD9.5 billion by 2034, representing a CAGR of 19.5% compared with 2024.

It is not just the automotive industry that is using Lidar now.

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