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Language: en
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he said leiter came into the game early
on and it's really the primary driver of
autonomous vehicles today as a sensor so
how important is the role of light are
in the sensor suite in the near term so
I think it's I think it's a central you
know I believe it but I also believe is
the cameras are essential and I believe
the radars is essential I think that you
you really need to use the composition
of data from from these different
sensors if you want the thing to to
really be robust the question I want to
ask I see if we kind of tangle is what
are your thoughts on the Elon Musk
provocative statement that lidar is a
crutch that is the kind of I guess
growing pains and that's much of the
perception tasks can be done with
cameras so I think it is undeniable that
people walk around without you know
lasers in their foreheads and they can
get into vehicles and drive them and and
so there's an existence proof that you
can drive using you know passive vision
no doubt can't argue with that in terms
of sensors yeah so yes sensors right so
like there's there's an example that you
know we all go do it many of us every
day in terms of latter being a crutch
sure but but you know in the same way
that you know the combustion engine was
a crutch on the path to an electric
vehicle the same way that you know any
technology ultimately gets
replaced by some superior technology in
the future and really what with the way
that I look at this is that the way we
get around on the ground the way that we
use transportation is broken and that we
have you know this this you know what
was I think the number I saw this
morning 37,000 Americans killed last
year on our roads and that's just not
acceptable and so tech any technology
that we can bring to bear that
accelerates the this techno you know
self-driving technology coming to market
and saving lives is technology we should
be using and it feels just arbitrary to
say well you know I'm I'm not okay with
using lasers because that's whatever but
I am okay with using an 8 megapixel
camera or a 16 megapixel camera you know
like it's just these are just bits of
technology and we should be taking the
best technology from the tool bin that
allows us to go and you know and solve a
problem the question I often talk to
well obviously you do as well to sort of
automotive companies and you know if
there's one word that comes up more
often than anything is costs and and
trying to drive costs down so while it's
it's true that it's a tragic number the
37,000 the the question is would and I'm
not the one asking these questions I
hate this question but yeah we want to
find the cheapest sensor suite that the
creates a safe vehicle so in that
uncomfortable trade-off do you foresee
lidar coming down in cost in the future
or do you see a day where level for
autonomy is possible without lidar I see
both of those but it's really a matter
of time and I think really maybe the I
would talk to the question you asked
about you know the cheapest set
certainly I don't think that's actually
what you want what you want is a sensor
suite that is economically viable and
then after that everything is about
margin and driving cost out of the
system what you also want is a sense
suite that
and so it's great to tell a story about
how you know how it'd be better to have
a self-driving system with a $50 sensor
instead of a you know $500 answer but if
the $500 sensor makes it work and the
$50 sensor doesn't work you know who
cares the long is you can actually you
have an economic offer you know there's
an economic opportunity there and the
economic opportunity is important
because that's how you actually have a
sustainable business and that's how you
can actually see this come to scale and
and and be out in the world and so when
I look at lidar I see a technology that
has no underlying fundamentally you know
expense to it fundamental expense to it
it's it's going to be more expensive
than an imager because you know CMOS
processes or you know fab processes are
dramatically more scalable than
mechanical processes but we still should
be able to drive costs down
substantially on that side and then I
also do think that with the right
business model you can absorb more you
know certainly more cost on the Bill of
Materials yeah if the sensor suite works
extra values provided thereby you don't
need to drive costs down to zero it's
the basic economics
you