That's ridiculous. My 2+ year old Mercedes self drives on the freeway quite nicely. They do require I keep my hands on the wheel, but other than that, it's doing the driving.

Other manufacturers aren't simply responding to Elan.

I've read comparisons between the Mercedes and Tesla. It wasn't even close. Even through the comparison was with 2 versions ago of the hardware (the single camera) and at least one major software revision ago. Car and Drive has the details.

dude, tesla isn't even on the list.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_car#History

It is on the list, and notice I said "mass market" vehicles. No other manufacturer, even today, has as many autonomous cars on the road as them. And the ones that do exist are not as advanced as Tesla's.

These other car companies have had so much more time and resources, and they have not pushed the way Tesla has.

Because Tesla needs to make a lot of money, very quickly. The other makers are already big, and can afford to play it safe. Tesla has to keep risking everything in silly marketing tricks.

They'll cool down in a few years (or disappear).

I think it's more about who is in charge, not how much money they need to make. I don't see Musk ever "cooling down".