Comment by runjake

Karpathy provided additional context on the removal of LiDAR during his Lex Fridman Podcast appearance. This article condenses what he said:

https://archive.is/PPiVG

And here's one of Elon's mentions (he also has talked about it quite a bit in various spots).

https://xcancel.com/elonmusk/status/1959831831668228450?s=20

Edit: My personal view is that LiDAR and other sensors are extremely useful, but I worked on aircraft, not cars.