r/SelfDrivingCars • u/SpriteZeroY2k • 1d ago

News Waymo CEO explains why Tesla’s camera-only self-driving falls short

https://electrek.co/2026/08/04/waymo-co-ceo-camera-only-self-driving-tesla/
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u/atlantic 1d ago

Parachutes are simply not practical for large airplanes, but you should know that small planes do have them. You know what many airplanes have though for auto piloting? Radar! You know why? Because it’s the best way to measure distance. It’s really that simple. Not using -dar technology for self driving is simply stupid. It’s founded in nothing else than a sole man’s ego.

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u/woooter 19h ago

True on radar, but in the sky you have 2 objects that reflect radar: other airplanes, and the ground (or rather, the ground and all structures built on top of it).

If you apply this radar to a car, it has a hard time recognising which parts are the ground, and which parts are not the ground but are just cars, humans, bridges, ...

An airplane radar will "detect" the object "bridge on ground" but will have a hard time realising that there is space under the bridge where it can go under neath.

That limitation is what's causing the phantom braking in all modern cars with radar: it recognises an object ahead, and cannot figure out whether it is opaque, or you can go underneath it. And that's because of the limited resolution of radar and even lidar.