Thanks for raising this point. I've spent a good while watching FSD beta videos, and to me the Number One mystery is
why they did not place left- and right-looking cameras much farther forward - around the headlights or at least in the A-pillars - to give cross-traffic vision angles that are
better than the human driver has, rather than worse. And this point only gets amplified if another car pulls alongside you while you're waiting to turn.
So I do think such forward-mounted cameras could greatly improve the confidence in initiating turns into cross-traffic, with less of the hesitant creeping-out behavior. However, I'd say that Chuck Cook's
Important demonstration, of the current Beta-s poor timing and decision-making for unprotected lefts across
oncoming traffic, would not be helped much by more forward-mounted cameras. I think that's more attributable to presently-inadequate consideration of the time dimension.
Human drivers see the left-turn opportunity coming up, make a decision and initiate the turn just as the last oncoming vehicle is passing by. Chuck's video shows the Tesla waiting too long, debating with itself in the moment (thus missing the safest moment) and then sometimes beginning a late and dangerous turn in front of approaching cars. All this is bad, but I don't see it as a problem of poor camera angles.
There's been a fair amount of discussion that "FSD 9" will have much better temporal extrapolation and movement prediction for tracked objects, including for example the expected re-appearance of vehicles or people that disappeared behind some obstruction. My hope is that this general capability will contribute to far more human-like predictive skills for picking the right moment to initiate a smooth and confident turn.