Tesla Adds Fully Self-Driving Hardware to All Models, But You'll Still Do The Work

You realize that without the rocket there would be no people in space, and without the plane no rocket, etc. we need to start somewhere to get the technology 'refined'. Musk is redefining the possible and we owe it to guys like him to be where we are.

You've gotta start somewhere..... Some form of standardization, even if immature, can help entice more, and more specialized, players into the field. Think guys writing specialized apps for your platform of standardized sensors and sensor positions. In the process making the platform itself more valuable, and more entrenched.... With Tesla currently, and for the short term future, having the largest fleet of "autopiloted" cars out there, hence the most real world experience with the stuff, this could also allow them to create a possible spinoff candidate, in case it turns out becoming a full line automaker was a step too far after all.

@tinbad As I said, gullible fanboys guzzle this stuff. Nobody knows what the hardware requirements will be. Musk is trying to gloss over the fatalities to date while installing stuff that may not even be used.

@stuki How can something be standardized when we don't even yet know what exactly is going to be standardized?

@Pch101 I assume you're referring to me being the fan boy? For what it's worth, I don't own a Tesla, not its stock. Although I could've. I choose not to. I'm a grown man and I'm able to make my own decisions. It doesn't prohibit me from admiring a successful entrepreneur and visionary risk taker. The point is that whoever does it first, becomes the standard. You're obviously the standard that came after something more exciting.

@tinbad Autonomous vehicle research and electric cars existed long before Tesla. Rushing technology to market when it isn't ready is marketing hype, not visionary. Other automakers don't do what Tesla does because it loses money and they are concerned about liability, not because they're all idiots.

"Musk is a master at this stuff." He's also good in a Dilbertian way at putting all the onus for deployment date upon government regulators . "Never gonna happen and it's not our fault".

@tinbad If Tesla wasn't doing it at this scale, nobody would. Nobody bothered to seriously look at alternatives for ICEs until Tesla came along. Doing an R&D project for PR purposes isn't the same as building a whole company on the premise that electric cars could one day become mainstream. Look at where we are now, Nissan, BMW, VW all make electric cars (God even GM got their heads out of their asses). I couldn't give a shit about Musk or Tesla but I do want for them (and other startups with a vision) to succeed. Nothing good comes from a few big corps completely owning a market with a high price to entry, they get lazy and stop innovating.

@tinbad I think there's a lot of people who somehow thin innovation happens in its own in a vaccuum. That *is* sometimes true (think the invention of the intermittent wiper blade or awesome places like Cerox PARC) but IMHO and in my own experience, change needs a catalyst. "Disruption" is a real effect even if the "disrupters" don't always reap the benefit themselves - they still move the needle and it rarely goes backwards. They very fact that Tesla has the telemetry and data they have (and presumably will have) on autonomous driving and sensor data will mean other interested companies will, at minimum, look to reach parity. Even *if* Tesla itself becomes a non-entity, they will have changed expectations on the sort of data these vehicles should have available. And that will have effects far beyond the orbit of Tesla itself. You can hate on Tesla the company all you want, but it's a net positive if they end up moving the needle on expectations surrounding upgradable cars, equitable vehicle pricing, collision analytics, vehicle automation or exp citations for electric vehicles. And while it's true only some of these may actually happen, they'll have spurred those changes, if nothing else, to come more quickly.