Rivian公司自动驾驶部门负责人James Philbin在接受采访时，对特斯拉CEO埃隆·马斯克对激光雷达（LiDAR）的否定态度提出了不同看法。Philbin认为，特斯拉在传感器技术上的“僵化观点”不符合自动驾驶工程的实际需求，也忽视了激光雷达等关键传感器价格的显著下降。他承认特斯拉在机器学习方面的贡献推动了行业发展，但整体而言，他评价特斯拉的自动驾驶方法是“好坏参半”。Philbin强调，随着技术的进步和成本的降低，激光雷达等传感器在提升自动驾驶安全性方面的作用不容忽视，并预测未来十年内，具备高级自动驾驶功能将成为新车竞争力的关键。

🚗 **传感器技术观点分歧**：Rivian自动驾驶负责人James Philbin认为特斯拉CEO埃隆·马斯克对激光雷达（LiDAR）的否定是一种“僵化的观点”，这与自动驾驶工程的实际需求和传感器成本的下降趋势不符。Philbin指出，尽管特斯拉在机器学习方面取得了显著成就，但其对LiDAR的排斥可能忽视了其在提升自动驾驶安全性方面的关键作用。

💰 **激光雷达成本大幅下降**：Philbin强调，激光雷达等高端传感器的价格已大幅降低。他以Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe的说法为例，指出过去昂贵（约75,000美元）的LiDAR设备，如今已降至约200美元，这使得将其集成到车辆中变得经济可行，并能有效解决高亮度和低亮度等复杂环境下的感知问题。

🚀 **自动驾驶的未来趋势**：Philbin预测，在未来十年内，具备接近顶级自动驾驶功能将成为新车销售的必要条件，以保持市场竞争力。他认为，随着技术的成熟和消费者偏好的转变，高级自动驾驶功能正日益成为一种重要的消费者期望，并将深刻影响汽车行业的发展方向。

James Philbin, Rivian's head of autonomy, said Tesla has a "rigid point of view" regarding sensors.Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly dismissed the use of LiDAR.Philbin explained to Business Insider why sensors are critical to autonomous driving.

Leaders at one of Tesla's competitors simply don't understand why Elon Musk is so critical of LiDAR.

James Philbin, Rivian's head of autonomy, said the EV leader's "rigid point of view" doesn't align with the engineering realities of autonomous vehicles or the declining prices of top-tier sensors, such as LiDAR, which uses lasers to measure distances.

"I think they have a very sort of rigid point of view, I guess, on different sensor modalities, which I don't think is fully explainable just from an engineering point of view," Philbin told Business Insider's chief news editor, Steve Russolillo, during an event focused on the AI evolution of autonomous vehicles.

Charlie Tyson, the Technology Activation Director of Michigan's Office of Future Mobility & Electrification, also joined Philbin for the discussion.

Philbin praised Tesla's focus on machine learning, crediting the Musk-led automaker for pushing the industry forward. Overall, he rated Tesla's approach to autonomous driving as "a mixed bag."

"On the good side, they've really sort of pushed the OEMs forward in the sense that they took a very ML-based approach early on," Philbin said.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Musk has repeatedly dismissed LiDAR. The Tesla CEO has gone so far as to suggest that automakers will eliminate LiDAR entirely.

"In cars, it's friggin stupid. It's expensive and unnecessary," Musk said in 2019. "Once you solve vision, it's worthless. So you have expensive hardware that's worthless on the car."

Earlier this year, Musk reiterated his deep-rooted skepticism.

"People don't shoot lasers out of their eyes to drive," Musk wrote on X in March, linking to a video of his 2019 comments. "Just try Tesla self-driving today, which just uses cameras and AI, and you will understand."

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe recently said that while LiDAR was once expensive, high-quality sensors are now available at a price point that makes them affordable to add to vehicles. Scaringe said the price drop, coupled with "much more robust neural net," has fundamentally changed the conversation around sensors.

"15 years ago, LiDAR was $75,000. Today, a LiDAR is like 200 bucks," Scaringe told Stripe cofounder John Collison on Collison's "Cheeky Pint" podcast. "So it's a very low-cost sensor and it solves certain things like very bright light, very low light, extremely well."

The changes are coming quickly. Philbin said that in 10 years, consumers will expect to have top-level autonomous features in every new car.

"I think every new vehicle sold in 10 years' time, to be competitive, will have to have close to best-in-class autonomy," he said. "I think it's becoming more and more of a consumer preference."