Tesla, the company headed by a CEO who has called lidar a 'crutch' and 'fool's errand,' spent at least $2 million on Lidar sensors in 2024—about 10% of the manufacturer's revenue this quarter alone. As reported by The Verge, that number comes directly from lidar maker Luminar, which revealed in its quarterly earnings report that Tesla was its top customer so far this year.
'What we’re going to explain to you today is that lidar is a fool’s errand,' said Musk during a 2019 investors' event. 'Anyone relying on lidar is doomed. Doomed. Expensive sensors that are unnecessary.' It was later apparent that the company may have been performing validation mapping, which means comparing the data produced by Tesla's vision-based systems to that of a Lidar sensor. However, 2,100 sensors seem like a tall order for validation mapping.