Humans drive with only 2 cameras pointed in a single direction. A Tesla has 8 cameras pointing in every direction. So by default it would already have superhuman awareness. But the difficulty is not perception, it is planning. Turns out to drive among other humans on public roads, you need to correctly understand and predict human behaviour first, which is like half the way to AGI.
Yes - but humans possess other senses, and crucially, our eyes have a much greater dynamic range than even the best cameras (and they are not fitting the absolute best cameras, because that would be even more expensive than LiDAR).
It also does away with one of the crucial aspects of "better than human safety" - driving in conditions where a camera is uselss - think moderate to dense fog, heavy rain etc. etc.
We don't have any senses that aren't trivially replicable in a car. Microphones and accelerometers were already plentiful before. And HDR is not really an issue anymore since all carmakers dynamically vary exposure times in their cameras. Other carmakers have tried to put LiDAR and stuff into cars for many years, but it didn't magically give them self-driving either. The key issue to solve is planning - not perception.
In case you really have two eyes pointing in a single direction, you should see an oculist urgently. Mine are doing a perfect 3D picture. Also, unlike the eyes of my Tesla which becomes blind when it rains, or if there is any light reflection, I can still see things.
Also, should your eye cameras be in fixed position, you even more urgently should see a doctor. Mine can be turned 180° on the X-axis, and 120° on the Y-axis.
And finally: My eye cameras have working high-speed auto-focus, HDR, are protected against rain or snow, can operate at very low ISO, and have retina resolution.
Human eyes have much higher resolution than Tesla's cameras, better dynamic range, no issues with rain or dirt on the lens, can take measures to avoid most glare from the sun, and are connected to a brain that is vastly better at driving than AI.
It makes no sense to say "humans can do it with only X, so machines should have to as well". Do cars run? Do planes flap?
I do agree that planning should be the hardest part of self-driving, but go and look at any Tesla FSD video on YouTube and it's clear they haven't solved the perception part yet either. Cars wobbling all over the place, morphing into vans, etc.
