Is Lidar Essential for Self-Driving Cars?

by Randall McAdory | Jan 21, 2020 | Aurora Innovation, Chris Urmson, Elon Musk, Waymo

I’ve tackled this question in a number of posts by highlighting Elon Musk’s view that the usage of lidar is an unnecessary crutch on the path to self-driving vehicles. During an interesting Artificial Intelligence podcast with Lex Fridman (July 22, 2019), Chris Urmson...

Is Lidar Unecessary? More Evidence that Musk Might Be Right.

by Randall McAdory | Jan 9, 2020 | Autonomous Vehicles, Elon Musk, Intel, Tesla

In a previous post, I discussed Elon Musk’s view that the usage of lidar in autonomous vehicle applications is a “fools errand.” Musk believes that radar, cameras, ultrasonic sensors and neural networks are all that’s needed to make self-driving vehicles function...

Tesla Gets Better With Time

by Randall McAdory | Oct 26, 2019 | Electric Vehicles, Elon Musk, Tesla

I’m not referring to the company getting better with time. I’m not even referring to this year’s manufactured Tesla vehicle being better than last year’s produced car. Tesla cars – no matter when they’re purchased – get better over time due to the...

Is There a Tesla Effect? If so, What Does it Mean for Traditional Automakers?

by Randall McAdory | Oct 16, 2019 | Electric Vehicles, Elon Musk, Tesla

Steve Lang, a special contributor to Capital One, wrote an interesting piece a few weeks ago titled, The Tesla Effect: How Tesla Is Changing the Used Car Game. Lang asserts that the once strong demand for European luxury brands is declining dramatically due to the...

The Controversy of Tesla’s Autopilot

by Randall McAdory | Oct 14, 2019 | Autonomous Vehicles, Elon Musk, Tesla

It’s an irresponsible brand name – Autopilot. It’s a name that makes the average consumer believe Tesla’s Autopilot system is Level 5, fully autonomous-capable. It’s not – at least not yet. Zachary Mider tackles many of the issues surrounding Autopilot...

Has Tesla Invented the Million Mile Battery?

by Randall McAdory | Sep 29, 2019 | Autonomous Vehicles, Electric Vehicles, Elon Musk, Tesla

According to an article written by Steve LeVine at Medium, Tesla may have invented the million mile battery. Based on patents filed by Tesla and an academic paper co-authored by a respected battery researcher (Jeff Dahn) on contract with Tesla, other top battery...