Volvo Ditches Lidar After Supplier Collapse; Musk Claims He Warned Against Relying on It

Volvo has announced it will discontinue lidar-related features for its EX90 and ES90 models in multiple markets, citing the bankruptcy of its lidar supplier, Luminar, which can no longer supply components. The company stated it will gradually stop collecting data via the lidar system; although the hardware will remain installed in vehicles, it will no longer be activated. In Norway, owners who have already purchased vehicles equipped with lidar will receive €1,800 in compensation to offset the impact of the unavailable features. Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to the news, saying he had previously warned against such an approach. He has long advocated that autonomous driving should mimic human driving—relying on optical sensors (cameras) combined with neural networks for environmental perception and decision-making, rather than depending on lidar. Tesla currently employs a vision-only system, equipping its vehicles with eight external cameras and using neural networks to process vast amounts of driving data to continuously refine its autonomous driving capabilities. The company phased out radar and other sensors years ago and remains one of the few automakers committed to a pure vision-based approach.