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by tintor 23 days ago
The main reason Tesla's don't have LIDAR is hardware cost and maintenance cost, not improved safety.
1 comments

Maybe also that cars with a LIDAR rig on the roof are appallingly ugly.

Tesla wants to make EVs that look like normal cars (Cybertruck being the oddball here, admittedly).

If I recall correctly, Elon chose to avoid LIDAR (in favour of cameras) due to cost, not cosmetics. Am I wrong?
I don't know. Cost might have been part of it but I also recall hearing that he thought since humans can drive with two eyes and no LIDAR then the car should be able to do the same thing.
It is not about the look. There are small solid state lidars that Tesla could have used.