Telsa's bet, and I think it's a really fair one, is that if humans only need two eyes to navigate as well as we do, a car with >2 eyes could eventually be as good or better than humans.
On the other hand, humans do not have lidar systems in their head, and so lidar is the real unproven technology. It's also clear that lidar is especially lacking in situations which require seeing longer distances (like say, driving!)
To be fair, lidar is winning in terms of problems vs. miles driven, but I believe their advancement will plateau far sooner (and perhaps permanently) than computer vision based systems.
Sure, humans can drive with two eyes and a brain. But do Tesla's cameras have the amazing abilities of the human eye, and do his "FSD" chips have the power of the human brain?
On the other hand, humans do not have lidar systems in their head, and so lidar is the real unproven technology. It's also clear that lidar is especially lacking in situations which require seeing longer distances (like say, driving!)
To be fair, lidar is winning in terms of problems vs. miles driven, but I believe their advancement will plateau far sooner (and perhaps permanently) than computer vision based systems.