> and computationally intensive problem Not an exact analogy, but this reminds me of ancient "software modems", which shaved off a few chips and offloaded pro

> and computationally intensive problem Not an exact analogy, but this reminds me of ancient "software modems", which shaved off a few chips and offloaded processing to the CPU. They were cheap, but had a real impact on your computer's performance. The trouble with image processing is that it seems basically impossible to perfect with the level of certainty you'd need for 100% autonomy, whereas LIDAR gives you very straightforward data to act on. You'd still need the cameras for recognizing traffic lights and such, of course.