Because they create a point-cloud from it radar is suddenly "like lidar"? I guess techcrunch is "like a handwritten letter" then, since symbols from the alphabet are involved in the output?
The lower end spinning lidar by velodyne, the VLP-16 - built and calibrated by hand, is $7999. The VLP-64 (64 lasers) used by Google's Lexus self driving cars is significantly more than a tesla model 3... so yeah, there are no commercially viable lidar systems and musk knows this full well.