Episode 328 | Autonomy Markets: Uber CEO Reignites The Great Waymo vs Tesla Debate

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk marked the one-year anniversary of Autonomy Markets and discussed the reignited debate between LiDAR and vision-only after comments made by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi during an interview. 

During the interview, Mr. Khosrowshahi stated that in the short term, a combination of camera, LiDAR, and radar is the “right solution,” noting that all of Uber’s current partners use this combination. This statement prompted a response from Elon Musk, who argued via a post on X that LiDAR and radar actually reduce safety due to “sensor contention” and reaffirmed Tesla’s commitment to a camera-only system. 

Beyond the technical debate, Grayson and Walt discussed Tesla’s expanded Robotaxi service in Austin and the growing opposition to a potential Waymo deployment in New York City.

Episode Chapters

0:00 One-Year Anniversary of Autonomy Markets

2:14 Dara Khosrowshahi Reignites LiDAR vs Vision-Only Debate

9:24 Elon Musk’s LiDAR Rebuttal 

11:49 What if Tesla Embraced LiDAR?

14:29 Robotaxi Expands in Austin, Once Again

18:14 Traffic Fatalities 

20:32 Waymo Begins Testing in New York City

26:06 Boring Company is Testing FSD Supervised in Las Vegas

29:07 Stellantis Shuts Down Internal ADAS Development Program

31:28 Next Week

Recorded on Thursday, August 28, 2025

--------

About The Road to Autonomy

The Road to Autonomy provides market intelligence and strategic advisory services to institutional investors and companies, delivering insights needed to stay ahead of emerging trends in the autonomy economy™. To learn more, say hello (at) roadtoautonomy.com.

Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter: https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/ae/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.