The technology relates to autonomous vehicles for transporting cargo and/or people between locations. Distributed sensor arrangements may not be suitable for vehicles such as large trucks, busses or construction vehicles (100, 120). Side view mirror assemblies (300, 320) are provided that include a sensor suite of different types of sensors, including LIDAR, radar, cameras, etc. (400, 402, 404, 406). Each side assembly is rigidly secured to the vehicle by a mounting element (304, 324). The sensors within the assembly may be aligned or arranged relative to a common axis or physical point of the housing (409). This enables self -referenced calibration of all sensors in the housing. Vehicle -level calibration can also be performed between the sensors on the left and right sides of the vehicle. Each side view mirror assembly may include a conduit (234, 410) that provides one or more of power, data and cooling to the sensors in the housing.