Rivian CEO: Tesla is going all in on cameras, but self-driving cars still need LiDAR

“No, I wouldn’t rule out LiDAR,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe told guest host and journalist Joanna Stern on The Verge’s “Decoder” podcast.

Amy E. Price/SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty Images

Elon Musk says self-driving cars only need to rely on cameras, and not other sensors like LiDAR.
But Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says LiDAR is “definitely beneficial.”
Scaringe said LiDAR has become much cheaper over the years, and “can do things that cameras can’t.”

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says his company has a different view on LiDAR and its relevance to achieving autonomous driving than Tesla.

“Our view is that it’s definitely beneficial, and our approach to sensors has been that we need to rapidly build our foundation model as fast as possible,” Scaringe told The Verge’s “Decoder” podcast in an episode that aired Monday.

Scaringe told guest host and journalist Joanna Stern that there is a “real benefit” and that he “wouldn’t rule out” including it in a self-driving vehicle’s multi-sensor system.

The debate over LiDAR started during an earlier development period, when the models being run had trouble processing inputs from different sensors and cameras, he added.

“Now, what’s happened is that we no longer run the models like that. So the models benefit from the maximum amount of information on the front of the model,” Scaringe said.

“The cost of LiDAR used to be tens of thousands of dollars. It’s now low, a couple of hundred bucks,” he added. “It’s a really great sensor that can do things that cameras can’t.”

Representatives for Scaringe at Rivian did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Scaringe’s view differs from that of Elon Musk, who has repeatedly criticized LiDAR systems.

In August, Musk said in an X post that using LiDAR and radar alongside cameras results in “sensor contention.”

“This sensor ambiguity causes increased, not decreased, risk. That’s why Waymos can’t drive on highways,” Musk said on X on August 25, referencing the robotaxi service owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

Waymo’s self-driving vehicles use a multi-sensor system comprising LiDAR, radar, and cameras to perceive their environment.

Tesla is instead betting its hopes on a vision-only system that relies on cameras, Musk said at Tesla’s “Autonomy Day” in 2019.

“In cars, it’s friggin stupid. It’s expensive and unnecessary. Once you solve vision, it’s worthless,” Musk added.

Scaringe isn’t the only auto executive who disagrees with Musk on LiDAR. In June, Ford CEO Jim Farley said at the Aspen Ideas Festival that LiDAR was “mission critical” for achieving autonomous driving.

Farley said LiDAR would be more effective than cameras when driving in places with bright sunlight. While the camera “will be completely blinded” by the sun, the LiDAR system will still be able to monitor its surroundings, he added.

“People trust Ford, and when you have a brand like Ford, when there’s a new technology, you have to be really careful,” he said.

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