Keep in mind the term Public Relations was though to have been coined by Edward Berneys. He's said on camera that the US Government realized propaganda worked well during WW2, but propaganda had become a bad word. So he created the US Department of Public Relations. It's literally a weasel word for propaganda.
There's some interesting comparisons. On the one hand you have Google, which is primarily a software company with hardware interests. Then you have GM which is an auto company with software interests. And you have Tesla which positioned itself in the middle, aiming to both build cars and software.
As a result, Google has a lot of core software expertise and infrastructure (particularly for machine learning). GM has the production capacity and the ability to roll out features to potentially millions of new vehicles. Google had to buy in automotive people. GM had to buy in software people. Tesla had to buy in both, but they did it from the very beginning with clear goals in mind.
From an outsiders' perspective, building a car that can drive by itself isn't terribly difficult nowadays. If you have the cash, you can buy a team that will build it. The challenge is getting from that stage to a car that can reliably drive better than a human in all driving conditions and deal with unexpected events. That will take much more time, and much more data.
There are other aspects like getting the sensors down to a price that people can actually afford.
There's nothing in the article that others haven't already done.