Meanwhile at Tesla: "We're the industry leaders, wait for us!"
Why so cynical? :)
The claims up until 2018 were met. 2018 is when Tesla got the hang of Model 3 production, so their value now had to come from promises like FSD beta.
The Saudis should have had come through.
In a rare moment of clarity Musk self-diagnosed and understood that he can't be trusted with a public company. He takes the stock price (and generally everything that impacts or perceived as impacting the stock price) too personally.
His best work was when he was at the helm of a private company out of the public eye. Unfortunately I think he became addicted to attention and can't go back.
All the former members of the PayPal mafia became addicted to being high ranked generals in the culture and political wars raging in across the country.
It's not anywhere close to FSD Beta.
Obviously this is ahead in a regulatory sense, but that can very easily just be politics, not technical sophistication.
Tesla only has a level 2 system where you have to be ready to take over at a moment's notice, and you can never take your eyes off the road.
But if Tesla is ahead, why did they back down recently and add driver monitoring systems as required by level 2, instead of applying for a level 3 certification?
I put certified in quotes because AFAIK there is no straightforward process to "apply for a level 3 certification" in the US, where Tesla is based. You don't just pay some application fee, have your vehicle / software vetted, and now your car is allowed to drive itself in all 50 states.
Whereas the OC is about Germany, where they have the Autonomous Driving Act that is actually explicit about certifying cars based on the standard levelling system (which again, is terrible).
Whichever way you cut it, that's a pretty significant situation for FSD at this time.
In my eyes, FSD is over, and has been for 2 years. They'll get to Lane Assist ^2 but that's it. None of the pretty youtube videos convince me, and there are just as many which are terrible.