It's not a problem with a camera based system. It's a problem with an overly complex AI+camera based system. If the car has to recognize what the camera sees be

It's not a problem with a camera based system. It's a problem with an overly complex AI+camera based system. If the car has to recognize what the camera sees before it will react, it's going to hit things. But you can have a camera based system with good binocular vision to build a depth map, no AI stuff. It doesn't matter if it's something seen before. If something is there, you don't need to know what it is, just don't hit it. The AI stuff is helpful for a lot of self driving decision making, but detecting objects for collision avoidance needs to be simple and reliable.