ISTANBUL

A multi-sensor system is a safer and more effective approach for autonomous driving than the vision-only method promoted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, said the founder of the world's top LiDAR maker.

“There’s been a lot of debate over whether a vision-only or multi-sensor approach is better when it comes to self-driving vehicles,” Steven Qiu, the founder and chief scientist of Chinese LiDAR maker RoboSense, told Business Insider on the sidelines of the FutureChina Global Forum in Singapore.

“But by now, it is clear that everyone understands that a vision-only approach is not safe enough. There are a lot of corner cases that a vision-only system cannot account for.”

LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a sensor that scans the environment by emitting laser beams and measuring the time it takes to get a return signal. It can be found in robotaxis and consumer products like robot vacuums.

Qui stressed that vehicles relying solely on cameras cannot reach Level 3 or Level 4 automation — standards defined by SAE International — without incorporating LiDAR and other sensors.

“If there is a white car that has stopped in front of you, it would be challenging for a vision-only system to tell if it’s a car or a white cloud in the sky,” he said.

RoboSense, established in 2014, became the world’s largest supplier of passenger car LiDAR systems in 2024, according to a report by Yole Group.

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving System currently remains at Level 2 automation, which requires human supervision.