Tesla bought more than $2 million worth of Luminar’s lidar sensors this year

Elon Musk doesn’t like lidar, the laser sensor that powers many companies’ autonomous driving ambitions. Previously, he called it a “crutch” and said any company relying on lidar for its autonomous capabilities was “doomed.”

Well, apparently Tesla is stockpiling crutches.

In its quarterly earnings report released today, Orlando-based lidar maker Luminar revealed that Tesla was its “largest LiDAR customer in the first quarter,” comprising more than 10 percent of the company’s revenue for the quarter. That translates to about $2.1 million in lidar, based on Luminar’s $21 million in revenue for the quarter.

In fact, Tesla bought so much lidar from Luminar that it helped offset a drop in quarterly revenue driven by lower sensor volume for non-automotive companies. Tesla to the rescue. (Not entirely: Luminar said last week it was laying off about 20% of its workforce. Tesla is also laying off employees.)

It’s a notable reversal for Tesla, which has famously reduced over the years the number of sensors it uses to power its advanced driver-assistance features like Autopilot and fully autonomous driving — features that Musk has consistently sold as precursors to a system fully autonomous. car fleet. Later this year, Tesla is expected to reveal a robotaxi prototype on which Musk is betting the future of his company.

Musk’s lidar allergy was evident during Tesla’s quarterly earnings call, in which he boasted about how its vehicles rely solely on camera-based vision systems to power their driver assistance features.

“It is obvious that our solution with a relatively low-cost inference computer and standard cameras can achieve autonomous driving,” Musk said. “No lidars, no radars, ultrasonics. Anything.”

What Tesla is doing with $2.1 million worth of Luminar lidar is anyone’s guess. Luminar spokesperson Milin Mehta declined to comment, and Tesla has not officially responded to any questions from reporters since 2019.

But it shouldn’t be a total shock that Tesla is curious about dealing with. In 2021, a Tesla Model Y was photographed in Florida with lidar sensors on the roof manufactured by Luminar. AND Bloomberg reported that Tesla has entered into a partnership with Luminar to use lidar for “test and development,” the exact nature of which remains unknown.

When I asked Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell in 2021 specifically about the Tesla deal, he declined to comment, citing “client confidentiality.” He noted that Luminar sells its older Hydra lidar units to some customers who do “testing, development… data collection, [and] comparative assessment.”

Even though Tesla is using Luminar’s lidar to validate its Full Self-Driving capability in preparation for the robotaxi launch, this is still quite to deal with. According to Luminar, individual lidar sensors cost about $1,000, including software. Did Tesla buy 2,100 lidars for its vehicles? Perhaps! The company is quietly operating a fleet of autonomous tests in several cities, including San Francisco and Las Vegas. Will these company vehicles be modernized with Luminar’s lidar? If that happens, people will notice – just like they noticed the Model Y in Florida several years ago. We’ll know soon if these vehicles are ready to hit the road.

In a post on X responding to a Musk fan account mocking this article, Musk said Tesla did not need the lidar for validation purposes – without clarifying the purpose of the sensors.

What seems clear is that Tesla is changing its tune on lidar, even if publicly Musk is still anti-lidar. Eventually, the CEO himself may be forced to swallow his pride and admit that lasers are indeed the sauce.

Update May 8: This story has been updated to include Musk’s X post acknowledging the lidar purchase.