The debate between cameras and lidar has been a long-standing issue in the driverless car industry. Elon Musk’s camp has consistently argued that cameras are sufficient and there is no need for lidar. However, YouTuber Mark Rober took it upon himself to conduct a test by putting a Tesla Model Y in Autopilot mode against other cars equipped with lidar technology to detect the environment. The key part of the test involved creating a “fake road scene” (similar to the Road Runner cartoon) to see if both car models could detect the fake road or not.
As expected, the cars with lidar technology detected the fake road easily, while the Tesla Model Y faithful followers collided with the barrier.
Rober’s test also involved placing a fake child dummy in front of the cars. The Model Y was able to detect it under normal conditions, but when smoke or rain was introduced, it failed to detect the obstacle and collided with the dummy, unlike lidar, which accurately detected it in all conditions.
Source: Electrek
Wall collision test segment approximately at the 14-minute mark in the video.
TLDR: Cameras vs lidar debate tested by Mark Rober, showing lidar technology outperformed cameras in detecting fake road scenes and obstacles.
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