[Gustomaximus]

Also I feel there are 2 other significant variables in play. Software is often an oligopoly type market. Self driving is likely to rewrite car manufacturers to those that solve this well and those that don't. Tesla for right or wrong has been viewed as one of the best bets here.

Elon factor. He's been a significant factor in quite a number of significant companies created. That seems an attractive bet he will do good things vs anyone else.

[simiones]

I think most have realized by now that self-driving is not a serious possibility anytime soon for anything other than a nice option to upsell the car by some small margin.

And Tesla FSD is not even best-in-class between car manufacturers (Mercedes is, with actual approved and shipped commercial L3), not to mention the entire self-driving market (where Waymo is way ahead).

[ChuckNorris89]

>Elon factor. He's been a significant factor in quite a number of significant companies created. That seems an attractive bet he will do good things vs anyone else.

I'm pretty skeptical on all things Elon these days.

[_hypx]

There is no "elon factor." This is pure hype.

[kelnos]

> Tesla for right or wrong has been viewed as one of the best bets here.

Really? From what I've read and seen, Tesla's self-driving is starting to feel like the butt of most jokes in the space. And Musk's absurd insistence that cameras are the only sensors anyone needs isn't doing their technology any favors.

> Elon factor.

I think Musk might be running out of steam. The Twitter fiasco shows how unstable and unfocused he is; the whole thing could collapse like a house of cards at any time. I had extreme respect for him 7 years or so ago, but that has eroded over time, and now I see him as a delusional, abusive asshole who happened to have the charisma (a nice way of putting "talent for emotional manipulation") to help build some successful businesses. (And it still remains to be seen if Tesla and SpaceX will continue to be successful in the long term.)