Well, LIDAR doesn't have that differentiation problem - it has a resolution problem for small (sub half meter) things at range.

Stereo LIDAR would just add more points - you can correlate the two, but you'll still have resolution issues.

Well there are "Flash Lidar" sensors, that are effectively instantaneous depth cameras firing a lidar beam for every pixel - but a) they're hugely expensive, and b) they don't seem to have taken off (possibly because academia can't afford them to do the interesting research that'll help them take off)

There are some cheaper ones now - the K4W2 is a flash LIDAR.

But range is always difficult. I think PMD is in use in BMWs. They purport a 90 meter(!) range, but I've never played with one.