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Will Tesla license its autonomous technology to other car makers?

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This presumes that Tesla arrives at the software solution to autonomous driving before others. If Tesla is able to accomplish this, and Tesla's mission is to advance sustainable energy, doesn't it make sense for them to sell the capability to other car makers to use specifically for their EVs?

They could choose to exclude licensing to ICE models. This would provide additional incentive to car makers to expedite their EV programs, and expand Tesla's reach and self-driving data faster than they could do on their own.

Why would Tesla not license their capability?
 
I saw in San Francisco several UBER autonomous cars using Ford and Volvo SUVs.
(There was still a driver on the helm...)

However, the UBER car have a LIDAR on the roof, which seems to be a different
(and more expensive) approach than the camera only approach taken by Tesla.

It would be interesting to see the evolution of those two autonomous approaches.

A LIDAR system cost at least $100,000.

A camera based system may have some limitations caused by the rain, snow, sun, night vision....
 
I saw in San Francisco several UBER autonomous cars using Ford and Volvo SUVs.
(There was still a driver on the helm...)

However, the UBER car have a LIDAR on the roof, which seems to be a different
(and more expensive) approach than the camera only approach taken by Tesla.

It would be interesting to see the evolution of those two autonomous approaches.

A LIDAR system cost at least $100,000.

A camera based system may have some limitations caused by the rain, snow, sun, night vision....

Your LIDAR price is about four years old, you can get one now for just 250$
- and you probably want to watch Tony Seba's presentation on "Clean Disruption":

 
Your LIDAR price is about four years old, you can get one now for just 250$
- and you probably want to watch Tony Seba's presentation on "Clean Disruption":

While his estimate is very high, I would have to try to dispel the same misconception that all LIDAR is equal.

Again, I would point out forward facing LIDAR (as used for ACC units) can be had for under $1500 as spare parts and had been on the market for a while now.
Tesla Sensor Suite vs. LIDAR

The $100k systems he was talking about refers to the automotive systems that have a 360 degree angle of view, with the cheapest version right now being the $8000 Velodyne VLP16 (300kHz sensor).
VLP-16

The $250 one only has a 120 degree field of view:
Quanergy Announces $250 Solid-State LIDAR for Cars, Robots, and More

The other $250 one only has a 40 meter range and 500Hz (600x slower) sampling speed.
Sweep Is a $250 LIDAR With Range of 40 Meters That Works Outdoors
 
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This presumes that Tesla arrives at the software solution to autonomous driving before others. If Tesla is able to accomplish this, and Tesla's mission is to advance sustainable energy, doesn't it make sense for them to sell the capability to other car makers to use specifically for their EVs?

They could choose to exclude licensing to ICE models. This would provide additional incentive to car makers to expedite their EV programs, and expand Tesla's reach and self-driving data faster than they could do on their own.

Why would Tesla not license their capability?
I forgot where I read it, but Elon already said the current configuration is too integrated into the car for it to be licensed as a generic system.
 
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Reactions: JeffK
The key technology behind Tesla's autonomous driving solution is Nvidia's Drive PX 2. Nvidia is working with about 30 other automakers so I suspect if Tesla is successful with their solution, other automakers would be quick to adopt Nvidia hardware as part of their solution.

Innovations by Automotive Industry Partners and NVIDIA DRIVE

They would still have to determine the best sensor hardware suite and then create the deep learning neural network, not easy, but having the Nvidia hardware available solves a big part of the problem.
 
....and of course LIDAR still has problems with rain and snow that RADAR doesn't.

I think L5 autonomy will arrive with Mobility app fleets that operate like Uber in restricted service areas. The service area will be premapped in high resolution by vehicles with high performance LIDAR. Detailed maps will be regularly updated. Once the fleet management system and the L5 Tesla's share all that detailed map data they can operate within it just fine using radar and camera vision systems. Having individual LIDAR on the fleet vehicles would add very little.

If L5 autonomy is assumed to be a property of the vehicle and the vehicle is supposed to be able to operate anywhere...it's easy it see why LIDAR seems important. I don't think that's what L5 means.