Elon Musk Says ‘I Did Try to Warn Them’ After Volvo Drops Luminar LiDAR From the EX90 and ES90 EVs Following Supplier Troubles

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA ) CEO Elon Musk revived the cameras-versus-LiDAR fight after Volvo Group (OTC: VOLVF ) confirmed it would abandon Luminar-supplied sensors and related features on its EX90 and ES90 electric vehicles.

Musk Renews His Case Against LiDAR "I did try to warn them," Musk wrote on X. "Humans drive using neural nets and optical sensors.

Same is true for robot cars." His response echoed Tesla’s argument that cameras and artificial intelligence can deliver scalable autonomy without costly laser sensors.

Volvo ended its partnership with Luminar Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: LAZR ) in November after supply disruptions and a contract dispute.

The automaker says LiDAR is no longer available on the EX90, while affected Norwegian owners will receive 18,000 kroner, or about $1,900, because promised LiDAR-based functions will not launch.

Delivered cars will keep the roof-mounted hardware, but Volvo plans to rely on cameras and radar for driver assistance.

Luminar’s problems ran deeper.

An SEC filing shows that a bankruptcy court confirmed the company’s Chapter 11 liquidation plan in April, after the supplier said Volvo’s reduced orders had damaged projected revenue.

Volvo had once promoted Luminar’s sensor as capable of detecting small objects hundreds of meters ahead, day or night.

Read Also: Tesla’s Hidden Growth Machine Just Surged 50%—And it Isn't Cars, Batteries or Robotaxis Tesla Maintains Its Camera-First Autonomy Strategy Musk has attacked LiDAR for years.

He called it a "fool’s errand" in 2019 and later argued that "people don’t shoot lasers out of their eyes." Tesla Vision uses exterior cameras and neural-network processing.

Tesla itself, however, says Full Self-Driving remains supervised and does not make its consumer vehicles autonomous.

Waymo Safety Results Complicate Tesla Argument Major robotaxi rivals reject Musk’s minimalist approach.

Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG ) (NASDAQ: GOOGL ) Waymo combines cameras, radar and four LiDAR units in its latest sensor suite, while Amazon.com Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AMZN ) Zoox uses cameras, radar, LiDAR and thermal imaging to provide overlapping perception.

Reuters has described those extra sensors as safety redundancy, though they raise costs.

Independent evidence currently favors Waymo’s complete system, not necessarily LiDAR alone.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found Waymo’s driverless vehicles had 68% fewer police-reportable crashes and 81% fewer injury crashes per mile than comparable human drivers across four cities.

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