Cameras are cheap, but, as I understand:
1) it's not cheap to produce lidars at a stable predictable quality in millions;
2) car driving training data sets for lidars are much scarcer (and will always be much scarcer due to cameras' higher prevalence) and at a much lower quality;
3) combined camera+lidar data sets are even scarcer.
> 1) it's not cheap to produce lidars at a stable predictable quality in millions;
It wasn't cheap to produce accelerometers at a stable predictable quality in millions before smart phones either. Mass production shakes things up somewhat. See the headline for reference.
Doesn’t that make it a sensible long term play to equip your car with $200 LIDAR and start gathering that data as a competitive advantage?
Yeah, this is all about Musk not wanting to admit he was wrong.
1. Automotive LiDAR is down to $350 in China already. BYD is starting to put LiDAR in even entry level cars. (It's been in their mid and high end cars for a while).
2+3. BYD collects extensive training data from customers, much like Tesla does. They will have no trouble with training.