Raspberry Pi and an affordable LIDAR
Now, here's a thing of joy that won't break the bank.... Well....£245 isn't "cheap", but it's about 10 times cheaper than they were when I last looked! https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1461.html I wonder if I could stick it on the roof of my 1959 Austin A35?..... now that could be interesting.... Well, these people have a slightly more expensive LIDAR and stuck it on top of a 3D Printed (?) vehicle - again, it's all about the software behind the hardware: https://nuro.ai/product