Rivian exec: Tesla's sensor hesitancy isn't 'fully explainable' because LiDAR is getting cheaper

Leaders at one of Tesla's competitors simply don't understand why Elon Musk is so critical of LiDAR.

James Philbin, Rivian's head of autonomy, said the EV leader's "rigid point of view" doesn't align with the engineering realities of autonomous vehicles or the declining prices of top-tier sensors, such as LiDAR, which uses lasers to measure distances.

"I think they have a very sort of rigid point of view, I guess, on different sensor modalities, which I don't think is fully explainable just from an engineering point of view," Philbin told Business Insider's chief news editor, Steve Russolillo, during an event focused on the AI evolution of autonomous vehicles.

Charlie Tyson, the Technology Activation Director of Michigan's Office of Future Mobility & Electrification, also joined Philbin for the discussion.

Philbin praised Tesla's focus on machine learning, crediting the Musk-led automaker for pushing the industry forward. Overall, he rated Tesla's approach to autonomous driving as "a mixed bag."

"On the good side, they've really sort of pushed the OEMs forward in the sense that they took a very ML-based approach early on," Philbin said.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Musk has repeatedly dismissed LiDAR. The Tesla CEO has gone so far as to suggest that automakers will eliminate LiDAR entirely.

"In cars, it's friggin stupid. It's expensive and unnecessary," Musk said in 2019. "Once you solve vision, it's worthless. So you have expensive hardware that's worthless on the car."

Earlier this year, Musk reiterated his deep-rooted skepticism.

"People don't shoot lasers out of their eyes to drive," Musk wrote on X in March, linking to a video of his 2019 comments. "Just try Tesla self-driving today, which just uses cameras and AI, and you will understand."

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe recently said that while LiDAR was once expensive, high-quality sensors are now available at a price point that makes them affordable to add to vehicles. Scaringe said the price drop, coupled with "much more robust neural net," has fundamentally changed the conversation around sensors.

"15 years ago, LiDAR was $75,000. Today, a LiDAR is like 200 bucks," Scaringe told Stripe cofounder John Collison on Collison's "Cheeky Pint" podcast. "So it's a very low-cost sensor and it solves certain things like very bright light, very low light, extremely well."

The changes are coming quickly. Philbin said that in 10 years, consumers will expect to have top-level autonomous features in every new car.

"I think every new vehicle sold in 10 years' time, to be competitive, will have to have close to best-in-class autonomy," he said. "I think it's becoming more and more of a consumer preference."

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