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.
Read the Full Episode Transcript
Subscribe to This Week in The Autonomy Economy™
Join institutional investors and industry leaders who read This Week in The Autonomy Economy every Sunday. Each edition delivers exclusive insight and commentary on the autonomy economy, helping you stay ahead of what’s next.
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
