Wouldnt any of these smart cars be able to know they physical volumes of many number of cars, including themselves, as well as communicate with eachother - and share their velocity, direction, volume, intentions so as to have a hive mind of the moving bodies?
What if you also just had a beacon which reported this information to other cars in a short network where the driver is human - so the smart cars all know where the human driver operated cars are.
Then, in addition, you collect all the point data, from lidar, you subtract the known data points given "a prius with a shape and mass and volume of this moving at a speed of that - and over time you have built out a complete point cloud of the static, non-variable topology?
rather than spending $75,000 on one lidar periscope, spend 75,000 on developing a beacon such that all cars are telling eachother where they are, their mass/volume and speed?