The "lidar is a crutch" excuse is such a fraud. Musk is doing it so he can make more money, because it's cheaper. Thats it. Just another sociopath billionaire cutting corners at the expense of safety.

The reason this is clear is because, except for a brief period in late 2022, Teslas have included some combination of radar and ultrasonic sensors. [0]

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Autopilot_hardware