The main reason is cost. LIDAR has issues and limitations, but so does every imaging system. A LIDAR/camera system is far superior than a camera only system, an

The main reason is cost. LIDAR has issues and limitations, but so does every imaging system. A LIDAR/camera system is far superior than a camera only system, and LIDAR does far more thing better than cameras, than cameras do better than LIDAR (judging distance, reduced computing effort, detecting reflective surfaces and surfaces with 2D images on them).[0] But LIDAR was running $70k per vehicle, which is just not feasible. But thanks to technological development and economies of scale, the price of LIDAR (and the size) has drop precipitously, and now can run below $1,000. [1][2] Now in the long run, for true driverless cars, LIDAR will be rendered obsolete by sufficiently accurate AI interpretations of camera feeds. But in the medium term, I think they are key to filling in huge weaknesses camera only systems have, and freeing up computing power currently being used by trying to judge “depth perception” using cameras, to be freed up to better deal with other things cameras are actually good at like color/text recognition for reading traffic signs, facial recognition for determining if a pedestrian sees you, differentiating between hard and soft objects, etc. [0] https://www.automotiveworld.com/articles/lidars-for-self-driving-vehicles-a-technological-arms-race/ https://www.automotiveworld.com/articles/lidars-for-self-dri... [1] https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Automobiles/Cheaper-lidar-sensors-brighten-the-future-of-autonomous-cars https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Automobiles/Cheaper-lidar-s... [2] https://news.itu.int/the-price-of-lidar-is-falling/ https://news.itu.int/the-price-of-lidar-is-falling/