Ex-Tesla Autopilot head calls vision-only a ‘weird religious stance’

Former Tesla Autopilot head Sterling Anderson, now GM's chief product officer, called the company's vision-only approach "a weird religious stance that ignores physics" in an interview with The Verge. According to Electrek, Anderson said radar is inexpensive and cameras cannot see through dense fog or measure instantaneous velocity like radar can, adding that lidar helps camera systems improve faster when trained together. He also criticized "eyes off" marketing language, arguing that capable driver-assist systems push drivers into complacency.

The article notes Tesla removed radar from Model 3 and Model Y in May 2021 over internal engineering objections, and NHTSA has opened an Engineering Analysis covering 3.2 million vehicles after nine crashes, including a pedestrian death, finding the camera degradation detection failed to identify common visibility impairments such as sun glare, fog, and airborne dust. Meanwhile, GM plans an "eyes-off" system with lidar, radar, and cameras for 2028, while Waymo has logged roughly 271 million rider-only miles with a multi-sensor suite.

Source

Ex-Tesla Autopilot head calls vision-only a ‘weird religious stance’ — Electrek