When it comes to autonomous vehicles, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has been adamant in using camera-only technology and not lidar. That stance could put the executive and his company at odds with a proposed state law in New Jersey.
New Jersey Targets Non-Lidar Technology
Tesla has expanded the states in which its robotaxis operate and looks to make autonomous vehicles a key part of its future growth.
That plan could face a setback in New Jersey if a bill requiring autonomous vehicles to use cameras and other sensing technologies passes.
The bill is expected to be voted on by New Jersey lawmakers later this year, as reported by The Verge. Under the rules of the proposed law, companies with autonomous vehicles operating in the state would have to use cameras along with other sensing technologies like lidar or radar.
If passed, New Jersey could be the first state with such rules. New York also has potential legislation coming that would be similar in nature, according to the report.
Tesla would be the most impacted by the new law in New Jersey, as Musk has been against lidar and radar for autonomous vehicles. Passing the bill would force Tesla to either change its process or skip New Jersey.
"This is not anti-Tesla," New Jersey state senator Andrew Zwicker told The Verge. "I’m pro-New Jersey safety."
Zwicker, who is the primary sponsor of the bill, also works at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. The state senator credits a ride in a Waymo robotaxi in Phoenix for convincing him that robotaxis could help transportation efforts.
"I was amazed how quickly you get used to it."
Waymo, which is a unit of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL), is a rival to Tesla’s robotaxi efforts.
Zwicker is pro-autonomous vehicle, believing this could reduce traffic deaths and make options more accessible to consumers. The lawmaker’s focus is on safety requirements for the technology, not on targeting any specific company.
If passed, the bill would establish a three-year pilot program for fully autonomous vehicles to be tested and deployed in New Jersey. Companies would be required to use cameras and sensing technology and report certain crashes to regulators. The bill also requires 50,000 miles of supervised testing in the state before human safety drivers can be removed from vehicles.
Elon Musk on Lidar
For years, Musk has argued that cameras are able to power autonomous vehicles by utilizing AI technology. This combination, he argues, is greater than using lidar or radar and also lowers the costs to produce robotaxis.
"Lidar and radar reduce safety due to sensor contention. If lidars/radars disagree with cameras, which one wins?" Musk said last year. "We turned off the radars in Teslas to increase safety. Cameras ftw."
While Musk is anti-LIDAR, other autonomous vehicle companies like Waymo and Zoox have used LIDAR, radar, and cameras on their vehicles to advance the technology. The argument comes from all three methods working together, helping to provide strengths for overall autonomous vehicles.
Tesla once promised to have hundreds of thousands of fully self-driving vehicles on the roads by the end of 2026. That figure is still out of reach, with the company operating unsupervised Robotaxis in a limited number of states and in small numbers in big cities.
The ability of states to set their own rules on autonomous vehicles could limit Tesla’s ability to expand as quickly as the company wants and as quickly as Musk once promised.
Photo: Josiah True / Shutterstock.com
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