Why not? Sure it's all complicated enough, but conceptually measuring distance with a laser is simple. Do that many, many times and you have a good enough pict

Why not? Sure it's all complicated enough, but conceptually measuring distance with a laser is simple. Do that many, many times and you have a good enough picture of the surrounding area in a machine-readable 3d format, so you have a good starting point. How is that not simpler than what Tesla is doing?