It's very, very difficult to build a successful car company, especially one that can produce affordable cars at scale.
The technology for self-driving cars will become commoditized, just as the technology behind smartphones did. When that happens, it will be the companies like GM, Ford, VW, and Toyota that produce self-driving cars that people can afford at large scale.
Tesla wants to join that club, but their production scale is not anywhere near that of GM or Ford, and they are about to learn that the biggest obstacle to building millions of cars in multiple factories is not technology and production processes -- it is dealing with worker unionization and the local/national politics of the places they try to build factories in. This is something the large players like GM and Ford are good at, after decades of experience.
Tesla is also getting an easy ride because it has a lot of very happy shareholders right now. Imagine trying to surmount those challenges while angry activist shareholders are trying to get you to split the stock, or forcing out your CEO when the stock price is flat.
I think Ford and GM are bargain stock deals right now for people who want to invest in self-driving cars. Ford and GM are may not be the first to develop that technology, but they are probably going to build more self-driving cars than anyone else once the technology becomes available.
As HN becomes more popular it inevitably becomes more cliquish. While I commend dang on his typically excellent moderation, it is inevitable that with more people and a voting system that a hivemind effect will develop.
Since I'm sure people will criticize me for being new here, this is not my original account and I have been here for a while.
not sure when you think either attempted this...
and of course there is the negative sentiment about it beeing illegitimate, unearned, perhaps undeserved if epistemology swings that way, because of the above