Tesla’s Elon Musk takes another shot at Waymo’s capabilities stemming from LiDAR

Max Headroom 2025.08.28 3 min read

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has frequently expressed his opinions on LiDAR in the past, but in recent days, the EV maker’s frontman has continued to discuss the weaknesses in the technology and why his company has relied on cameras.

He also mentioned the suite’s limits on Waymo’s capabilities.

Tesla completely abandoned using radar alongside its camera suite a few years ago, something it referred to as “Tesla Vision” at the time. For its vehicles, it has only used cameras since this transition, and Musk has never once shied away from this strategy.

Earlier this week, he discussed the reliance of LiDAR and radar by other companies:

“Lidar and radar reduce safety due to sensor contention. If lidars/radars disagree with cameras, which one wins?

This sensor ambiguity causes increased, not decreased, risk. That’s why Waymos can’t drive on highways.

We turned off radars in Teslas to increase safety. Cameras ftw.”

Elon Musk argues lidar and radar make self driving cars more dangerous

He continued with this narrative again and mentioned Waymo specifically on a second occasion.

Musk’s focus this time was on Waymo vehicles and their capabilities in adverse weather, specifically snow, rain, or even dust storms, and how LiDAR struggles to navigate in these conditions.

He said:

“LiDAR also does not work well in snow, rain or dust due to reflection scatter. That’s why Waymos stop working in any heavy precipitation. As I have said many times, there is a role for LiDAR in some circumstances and I personally oversaw the development of LiDAR for the SpaceX Dragon docking with Space Station. I am well aware of its strengths and weaknesses.”

LiDAR also does not work well in snow, rain or dust due to reflection scatter. That’s why Waymos stop working in any heavy precipitation.

As I have said many times, there is a role for LiDAR in some circumstances and I personally oversaw the development of LiDAR for the SpaceX…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2025

Tesla’s approach is significantly different than most companies. Waymo, Motional, Aurora, and Zoox all use LiDAR for their self-driving programs, while Tesla continues to rely on its camera-only approach.

Musk even said that Model S and Model X utilized a Tesla-developed high-resolution radar, but it could not “compare to passive optical (cameras), so we turned it off.”

Tesla developed high resolution radar and the hardware is actually present in Model S & X, but it just can’t compare to passive optical (cameras), so we turned it off.

As a side note, any military systems that rely on radar “stealth” technology are toast in a modern conflict,…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2025