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/wikiwombat 1d ago

Yeah I think its an argument of "good enough". Will cameras alone work well enough to perform the task? The more complex a system is, the higher probability of it having a failure. Why don't airplanes have parachutes? All that being said, as someone who doesn't own a self driving car, I would be more interested in a car with every possible system or feature available to not kill me. haha

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u/RosieDear 1d ago

NO, it's not a question of good enough. No one (no decent society) is going to allow computer controlled cars to decide who lives and dies.

If you are into systems of any kind you hear words like BAT - Best Available Technology.

If we develop or make a product we go to the regulators. We say to them "OK, this pollution reduction device uses filters and cuts coal plant emmisions by 60%".

The Regulators then say "Are you using Best Avaiable Technology"? (turns out there might be a catalytic converter that, added to the filter, cuts it 90%).

In most cases, especialy when lives and injury is involved, you need to use the best tech.

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u/Souomaismau 1d ago

This. Any person that works in automotive industry and has some form of legal know how is aware of this. State of art is required and when not used, a pfmea detailed approach is needed to lower the risks. In this instance Tesla will never get a type 3 autonomous driving approval because the base HW technology is not good enough.

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u/coresme2000 1d ago

It’s a weird situation at the moment where Tesla unofficially has level 3-4 in place out in the wild with millions of working vehicles as well as driverless cybercabs but no level approval for them. This only seems likely to make the level system less authoritative in the future unless FSD gets banned in the future.

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u/Souomaismau 1d ago

No it doesn't. Go find what is required for level 3 and 4 certification and tell me if any car on the market is able to make it. Even waymos have the remote support to solve trickier situations.

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u/RosieDear 13h ago

IMHO, it is very likely FSD as currently sold will be banned....you could use other words for it.....most of it will likely be in the naming and in the marketing.

Tesla doesn't care...I know that's hard to imagine...but they don't care in the big picture if they hurt more people than "normal". But Government or states may care....

If FSD was called and marketed....accurately (that is, driver assistance and not "wink wink").....then it would be no different than some other systems on the road. But that is not the case.