Tesla's entire fleet runs on raw cameras. Including the driverless Robotaxi vehicles - which are basically a 1:1 match to how Waymo operates.
Plenty of hecklers were saying "you can't self-drive on cameras", and some still try. But Tesla's self-driving on cameras, and it seems to work fine. While Waymo's self-driving on fat sensor stacks, and it also seems to work fine. Sensors don't seem to be a differentiator of self-driving performance.
I don't think anything about self-driving tech supports your claim. Tesla was bullish on AI all the way, and Waymo has also shifted towards highly integrated end to end AI. It's the AI advances that make self-driving tractable - not anything else.
Plenty of hecklers were saying "you can't self-drive on cameras", and some still try. But Tesla's self-driving on cameras, and it seems to work fine. While Waymo's self-driving on fat sensor stacks, and it also seems to work fine. Sensors don't seem to be a differentiator of self-driving performance.
I don't think anything about self-driving tech supports your claim. Tesla was bullish on AI all the way, and Waymo has also shifted towards highly integrated end to end AI. It's the AI advances that make self-driving tractable - not anything else.