Salt Lake City Tesla LiDAR

[Krash]

Anyone have a theory on why a Tesla with LiDAR is driving around Salt Lake City? And why someone on the Tesla Owners Utah Facebook group would report that the local Tesla employees know about it and can’t talk about it?

From that group…

And from a trusted source…

Kind of looks like an Ouster REV7 OS.

 

[ElectricIAC]

Might have something to do with testing in environments with varying topography and CA is way too high profile to do that in.

As for employees, NDA’s and the threat of being sued into the ground by the bird man’s legal team usually works.

 

[JulienW]

Does it have manufacture plates? If not it may be another compony altogether doing testing and coincidentally USING a Tesla.

 

[Krash]

Does it have manufacture plates? If not it may be another compony altogether doing testing and coincidentally USING a Tesla.

I had assumed this. If the local Tesla people were reported to say “we don’t know anything about that”, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.

Besides the plates, it would be interesting to see closeup photos of the cameras. Especially the front. This isn’t an S/X where the HW4 is supposed to be first released but I think Tesla has been known to validate their cameras with LiDAR.

 

[Supcom]

Tesla instruments some cars with LiDAR for use in development testing processing algorithms. The LiDAR provides an independent estimate of 'ground truth' used to evaluate results from the car's cameras. Obviously, employees will not discuss details of what they are doing.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Besides the plates, it would be interesting to see closeup photos of the cameras. Especially the front. This isn’t an S/X where the HW4 is supposed to be first released but I think Tesla has been known to validate their cameras with LiDAR.

According to Elon, HW4 will first appear in the Cybertruck, but I hope it shows up in the S/X first.

 

[Krash]

According to Elon, HW4 will first appear in the Cybertruck, but I hope it shows up in the S/X first.

I had heard Cybertruck too, but there is the recent Canadian regulatory leak involving the S/X.

 

[WyoDude]

How do we know it’s LiDAR?

 

[Krash]

How do we know it’s LiDAR?

We don’t, but if you zoom in on that second photo, and then look at that device link, it sure looks like the same unit.

 

[Twiglett]

I didn't think the Cybertruck was that much taller than the Model Y
Although now I say that, it may be the correct height for the Semi . . .

 

[WyoDude]

I would guess this is a college or another company testing something

 

[JHCCAZ]

Salt Lake City, tall structures, a bit of secrecy...

Lidar Day Saints!

 

[wwu123]

I think I just saw one of these, a black Model 3, driving at night on surface roads near Palo Alto in SF Bay area. Had a similar roof rack with a single sensor mast sticking straight up. License plates looked like regular recent California plates (9XXXYYY). But on the drivers side door were lettering "Fleet Validation" something something....

Which leads me to think it's a Tesla-owned fleet validation vehicle, as when I google, I found

Additional Resources | Tesla Other Europe

and if you read the privacy notice, it says

"These cars are owned and operated by Tesla, clearly marked, and are equipped with sensors and cameras to conduct fleet testing in real life environments. Their purpose is to gather road data for research, testing, and development in pursuit of advancements in vehicle safety and technology"

So I think @Supcom had it right on, and the privacy notice actually says a lot about what it's doing, in order to explain what it is NOT doing - i.e. NOT collecting personally identifiable facial or other information on YOU.

 

[israndy]

Was just in Alameda, CA:

 

[JHCCAZ]

Was just in Alameda, CA:

View attachment 944535

Finally the real scoop, this must be the HW4 production version!

Who says Tesla can't retrofit a wiring harness?!