Tesla Model Y Is Spotted Testing LiDAR With Manufacturer Plates
It was not long ago that Elon Musk said LiDARs were a “fool’s errand.” Yet, people have been seeing Tesla prototypes with strange sensors mounted to an improvised roof rack. The latest ones come from Grayson Brulte, an autonomous driving technology expert. He took pictures of a Model Y with manufacturer license plates from California and the same roof rack in Palm Beach, Florida. Check what he has to say about it...
“I am 99.9% sure they are Luminar H LiDARs. Luminar has told me that it is their LiDAR and you can reference the image by looking them up."
We followed Brulte’s advice – who kindly allowed us to use his pictures – and visited Luminar’s website. They have two main LiDARs there: the Hydra and the Iris. We suppose the Luminar H is the Hydra, which is used for testing and development programs. The Iris is for series production programs starting in 2022.
It appears that Brulte is correct: the “sensor” looks just like a Luminar Hydra, which means Tesla is apparently at least testing the technology.
