Tesla Was Luminar’s Largest Sensor Customer in the First Quarter

tesla was luminar’s largest sensor customer in the first quarter

A 2024 Tesla Model 3 during the Montreal Electric Vehicle Show in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on Friday, April 19, 2024. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is offering more tax breaks to automotive firms to put their electric vehicle factories in Canada, as companies including Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. consider lucrative new investments.

(Bloomberg) — Elon Musk has famously said that lidar is a fool’s errand.

And yet Tesla Inc. has purchased $2 million worth of the laser-based sensor technology from Luminar Technologies Inc.

Luminar said that Tesla was “our largest lidar customer in Q1 and comprised more than 10% of our revenue in the quarter” in its letter to shareholders Tuesday. The Orlando-based company reported $21 million in revenue for the quarter.

Musk has staked Tesla’s future on a next-generation, self-driving vehicle concept called the robotaxi that he has promised to unveil on Aug. 8. Musk has been talking about autonomous driving for years, but the renewed push comes amid sagging electric vehicle sales and growing competition from China.

“What we’re going to explain to you today is that lidar is a fool’s errand,” said Musk during a 2019 event for investors. “Anyone relying on lidar is doomed. Doomed. Expensive sensors that are unnecessary.”

Tesla uses a camera-based vision system for driver assistance features marketed as Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. Tesla has partnered with Luminar in the past for testing and development.

“This isn’t the first time that they’ve ordered lidars from us, but I would say its been more lumpy than recurring,” said Luminar CFO Tom Fennimore on the company’s earnings call Tuesday.  “What exactly they’re doing with them, we can only speculate.”

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