How about a limited LIDAR that only looks straight ahead? (Perhaps in a 5x5 degree wedge?) That's likely to be far cheaper than a full LIDAR set, and would provide useful data about a barrier in the vehicle's path.
Somehow I doubt this problem is as simple as "add a LIDAR" considering there's probably at least one smart person at Tesla who has thought of that idea. Sure you might be right, but my impression is that the 1 in a million cases will still exist.
Adding LIDAR would make the millions of cars on the road a liability. You'd have to make those people whole and basically recall the cars. If you can 'make it work' with cameras, you save millions.
I agree - and I think you're seeing new products in the lidar space with a focus on cost constraint (with more limited resolutions). I really do hope tesla adopts at least 1 or 2 of these cheaper options when they get cheap enough, my guess is a 50% of lidar would get you 80% of the benefits and fix a lot of these long tail edge case issues around drive-able areas.
As mentioned elsewhere in this discussion, RADAR had a hard time with stationary objects. They get lots of false positives from things on the side of the road, overhead signs etc.
