Tesla pushes lidar-free self-driving system in China amid wait for Beijing's FSD approval
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The US carmaker will 'adhere to visual processing solutions' to achieve safer intelligent driving in various scenarios, the company said in a post on Chinese microblogging platform
Weibo on Sunday.
It added that this initiative would prove that 'advanced technology doesn't require expensive, complicated sensors'.
The post formed part of Tesla's latest
social-media campaign on the mainland, which reasserts billionaire chief executive
Elon Musk 's scepticism of lidar – short for light detection and ranging. Similar to radar, lidar uses lasers to measure a car's distance from objects, providing higher precision in certain environments.
Musk in 2019 famously dismissed the idea of installing lidar sensors on EVs, calling it a 'a fool's errand' because of the high production costs involved.
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On the mainland, however,
one out of every four new cars taking to the streets this year is expected to be fitted with at least one lidar sensor, according to a recent China Securities report.
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