>Lidars come down in price ~40x.
Is that really true? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.Ars cites this China Daily article[0], which gives no specifics and simply states: >A LiDAR unit, for instance, used to cost 30,000 yuan (about $4,100), but now it costs only around 1,000 yuan (about $138) — a dramatic decrease, said Li.
How good are these $138 LiDARs? Who knows, because this article gives no information.This article[1] from around the same time gives more specifics, listing under "1000 yuan LiDARs" the RoboSense MX, Hesai Technology ATX, Zvision Technologies ZVISION EZ5, and the VanJee Technology WLR-760. The RoboSense MX is selling for $2,000-3,000, so it's not exactly $138. It was going to be added to XPENG cars, before they switched away from LiDAR. Yikes. The ATX is $1400, the EZ5 isn't available, and the WLR-760 is $3500. So the press release claims of sub-$200 never really materialized. Furthermore, all of these are low beam count LiDARs with a limited FOV. These are 120°x20°, whereas Waymo sensors cover 360°x95° (and it still needs 4 of them). It seems my initial skepticism was well placed. >if you had to choose one or the other for cost you’d be insane to choose vision over lidar
Good luck with that. LiDAR can't read signs.[0] https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202503/06/WS67c92b5ca310c... [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-beijing-international-a... |