Luminar's disclosure of its business with Tesla was interpreted by critics of the electric vehicle maker as a sign that Elon Musk was walking back somewhat on his previous comments about LIDAR being a crutch and a dead-end for self-driving.
Longtime Tesla watchers note that the EV maker often uses LIDAR units to validate vision data on test vehicles, which aligns with Tesla's purchase from Luminar.
Elon Musk responded to Tesla being Luminar's top customer in Q1 2024 by mentioning that the electric vehicle maker won't need LIDAR units for collecting ground truth data anymore.
During Luminar's earnings call, CEO Tom Fennimore mentioned that while Tesla has ordered LIDAR units before, they haven't been a consistent customer, describing the relationship as 'more lumpy than recurring.'
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