Uber CEO Reignites the Great Waymo vs Tesla Debate

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk marked the one-year anniversary of Autonomy Markets and discussed the reignited debate between LiDAR and vision-only after comments made by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi during an interview. 

During the interview, Mr. Khosrowshahi stated that in the short term, a combination of camera, LiDAR, and radar is the “right solution,” noting that all of Uber’s current partners use this combination. This statement prompted a response from Elon Musk, who argued via a post on X that LiDAR and radar actually reduce safety due to “sensor contention” and reaffirmed Tesla’s commitment to a camera-only system. 

Beyond the technical debate, Grayson and Walt discussed Tesla’s expanded Robotaxi service in Austin and the growing opposition to a potential Waymo deployment in New York City.

Episode Chapters

0:00 One-Year Anniversary of Autonomy Markets

2:14 Dara Khosrowshahi Reignites LiDAR vs Vision-Only Debate

9:24 Elon Musk’s LiDAR Rebuttal 

11:49 What if Tesla Embraced LiDAR?

14:29 Robotaxi Expands in Austin, Once Again

18:14 Traffic Fatalities 

20:32 Waymo Begins Testing in New York City

26:06 Boring Company is Testing FSD Supervised in Las Vegas

29:07 Stellantis Shuts Down Internal ADAS Development Program

31:28 Next Week

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