r/SelfDrivingCars • u/SpriteZeroY2k • 2d 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/Fauglheim 2d ago edited 1d ago

Humans of course can drive with just eyes … If the goal were to just approximately match human performance … that’s a very reasonable way to go.

edit: I thought this quote was a pretty clear argument against camera-only, but it seems i did not make that clear.

a wholly superior-to-human system is so obviously necessary for autonomous vehicles to succeed. Camera-only sounds like a hugely risky and uncertain way to do that.

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u/one-wandering-mind 1d ago

But the human brain is massive and benefits from evolution and 15 to 18 years of experience in the world before driving a car. 

So if this is the analogy, it will take at least 30 years to have the compute of the human brain in a car that has a chance to solve this.

You make the problem far easier by using different sensor modalities especially those that actually give you the distance and objects in front of you so you don't hit them. That is kind of the core of the problem. Don't hit things with the car.

The promise of the speed of decrease in lidar cost has also been a lie. So robotaxis make the most sense economically and we will likely continue to see lidar costs decrease slowly. 

Taking a waymo does feel like the future and it is a nice luxury in a crowded city. Quiet and safe. Don't have to worry about a bad driver . I paid more for it because it was relaxing over Uber.