BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech

senti_sentient wrote: post #3

cadamsdotcom wrote: post #2

Disruption at its finest :)

Someone said that LiDAR is too expensive, camera is better :)

And then made the best adas on the market using cameras

Re: BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech

#5

Post by AnotherGoodName » Sun, Jan 11, 2026, 9:22 PM UTC

Lidars come down in price ~40x.

https://cleantechnica.com/2025/03/20/lidars-wicked-cost-drop...

Meanwhile visible light based tech is going up in price due to competing with ai on the extra gpu need while lidar gets the range/depth side of things for free.

Ideally cars use both but if you had to choose one or the other for cost you’d be insane to choose vision over lidar. Musk made an ill timed decision to go vision only.

So it’s not a surprise to see the low end models with lidar.

Re: BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech

#6

Post by refulgentis » Sun, Jan 11, 2026, 9:22 PM UTC

iknowstuff wrote: post #4

senti_sentient wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone said that LiDAR is too expensive, camera is better :)

And then made the best adas on the market using cameras

I've struggled with this over the years, but think we can call it at this point: Waymo is definitely better.

Just too much real world data.

(i.e. scaled paid service, no drivers, multiple cities, for 1 year+)

Re: BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech

#7

Post by Rebelgecko » Sun, Jan 11, 2026, 9:23 PM UTC

iknowstuff wrote: post #4

senti_sentient wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone said that LiDAR is too expensive, camera is better :)

And then made the best adas on the market using cameras

By what metric? In terms of deaths, injuries, and crashes per mile their Full Self Driving at least an order of magnitude behind Waymo

Re: BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech

#8

Post by refulgentis » Sun, Jan 11, 2026, 9:23 PM UTC

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #5

Lidars come down in price ~40x. https://cleantechnica.com/2025/03/20/lidars-wicked-cost-drop... Meanwhile visible light based tech is going up in price due to competing with ai on the extra gpu need while lidar gets the range/depth side of things for free. Ideally cars use both but if you had to choose one or the other for cost you’d be insane to choose vision over lidar. Musk made an ill timed decision to go vision…

^ this, the article is quoting LIDAR price ($25K) from years ago.

Re: BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech

#9

Post by cr125rider » Sun, Jan 11, 2026, 9:24 PM UTC

iknowstuff wrote: post #4

senti_sentient wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone said that LiDAR is too expensive, camera is better :)

And then made the best adas on the market using cameras

That’s not true at all. Tesla taxis aren’t even close to Waymo’s capabilities.

Re: BYD's cheapest electric cars to have Lidar self-driving tech

#10

Post by DustinBrett » Sun, Jan 11, 2026, 9:24 PM UTC

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #5

Lidars come down in price ~40x. https://cleantechnica.com/2025/03/20/lidars-wicked-cost-drop... Meanwhile visible light based tech is going up in price due to competing with ai on the extra gpu need while lidar gets the range/depth side of things for free. Ideally cars use both but if you had to choose one or the other for cost you’d be insane to choose vision over lidar. Musk made an ill timed decision to go vision…

Show the cost differences and do the math then come back to us before you can suggest what decisions were ill timed. Otherwise it's just armchair engineering.