Toyota’s Sleek Challenge to Tesla: Cameras Over Lidar, Anyone?
San Francisco — Woven Planet, the high‑tech arm of Toyota, has just thrown its weight behind Tesla’s mission to ditch pricey lidar arrays and ride the wave of cheap cameras for self‑driving glory.
Why Cameras are the New Superstars
- Cost‑cuts galore: Cameras are 90% cheaper than the sensor suites Tesla’s rivals are chewing up.
- Data deluge: Toyota’s massive fleet of cars is feeding the system with a data buffet far bigger than what the pricier lidar testing spots can offer.
- Scalable ambition: Instead of racing a handful of high‑budget prototypes, Toyota wants every car on the road to be a data‑collector.
Inside the Woven Planet Pitch
Michael Benisch, Woven Planet’s Engineering VP—who once steered Lyft’s autonomous division—laid out the vision:
“We need a lot of data. One small fleet of expensive, top‑tier vehicles just won’t cut it.”
“Toyota’s advantage? A huge data set—just with a lower fidelity—thanks to those budget‑friendly cameras.”
Benisch emphasizes that the trick isn’t about building the slickest sensor, but about making data vast enough to train a truly reliable self‑driving brain.
How It All Comes Together
- Cars across San Francisco drive, shooting thousands of seconds of footage with their built‑in cameras.
- Machine‑learning models ingest this image soup to learn every curve, stop sign, and unexpected dog crossing.
- When this approach scales, it’s expected to bring down tech costs while pumping up safety.
Bottom Line
With cameras as the new “secret sauce,” Toyota’s Woven Planet is aligning engineering skill and data volume to turbocharge autonomous driving—without lugging around a truckload of scanners. If success lands, the road ahead could mean less expensive rides for everyone, and a lot less buzz—and a lot less laser teardrop.
<img alt="" data-caption="A handout photo. A camera system to collect data and advance self-driving car technology developed by Toyota's subsidiary Woven Planet is seen atop an autonomous test vehicle in San Francisco Bay Area, US, in this undated handout photo provided by the Woven Planet on April 5, 2022.
PHOTO: Reuters via Woven Planet” data-entity-type=”file” data-entity-uuid=”661675d2-f1d1-4400-b860-31833956744c” src=”/sites/default/files/inline-images/07032022_camera.jpg”/>
Toyota’s Sensor Showdown: Cameras vs. High‑End Tech
— A quirky peek into the future of autonomous driving
What the engineers whispered in the lab
Imagine a world where your word‑of‑mouth phone camera could drive a car.
Toyota’s very own tech wizard told us that by using data from the cheap‑end
cameras (yes, the ones in your grandma’s kitchen appliance), his system’s
performance jumped to almost the same level as when he fed it the expensive,
state‑of‑the‑art sensors.
Why the big guns still matter
- Lidar and radar are the heavyweights that make sure robotaxis don’t
epically crash. - The team insists these multimode sensors are still the safest route in
the GPS jungle.
Future‑Look‑back
“In a few years, the camera tech could level up and even overtake thebetter sensors,” he mused.“The real mystery? When we can trust the cameras enough to let them steerthe wheel on their own. That’s still a wild guess.”
Enter Elon Musk (the daredevil CEO)
Musk’s got his own hype machine. He’s declared, “This year, cameras can
achieve full autonomy.”
But then, like a bad episode of a reality show, those predictions have kept
flipping from November to July to… still a few years later.
Why this matters
- A camer baby could mean lighter cars and fewer pricey parts.
- A radar‑or‑lidar super‑hero protects rider safety during the tech
gap. - Just like any other sci‑fi plot, we’re watching the showdown unfold.
So, orchestrate your imagination! Ride or not, the future’s
camera‑powered destiny is still in the works.
