We're using a lot of sensory data to compensate for the fact that the "AI" driving the car is really dumb. It lacks any meta-level understanding of the problem

We're using a lot of sensory data to compensate for the fact that the "AI" driving the car is really dumb. It lacks any meta-level understanding of the problem domain and is essentially a stimulus-response system similar to a very simple insect or even a single celled organism. We can drive a car with much more limited sensory input because we have a very high level cognitive model of what we are doing. Better model equals better decision making on far less information. Slight tangent: Having kids was an interesting chance to observe how far we are from "real AI." You can show a 3 year old one example of an object and after a few seconds they can subsequently identify that object in any lighting condition or from any angle. They can identify it with one eye closed. They can identify variations of it, pictures of it, and line drawings of it. One example, seconds. The human brain absolutely destroys any AI/ML we have.