This may be true, but nothing I have seen so far suggests that ubiquitous full automation will arrive until long after the likes of Tesla and Uber have run out of money. From here, it looks like we still have several rounds to go for each of

- Can we actually do it?

- Will the regulators let us do it?

- Will the public believe we can do it and trust us to do it safely?

That assumes there are no black swan events undermining the whole car industry in the meantime. Given the increasing population and congestion issues in many big cities, the corresponding increasing interest in planning/zoning policy so that using cars to get around is less essential, and the environmental implications of this kind of vehicle even if it's a hybrid or totally electrically powered locally, I think there's also a slight chance that demand for this kind of technology will never reach critical mass at all.

I've been following Audi for some time. [1]

[1] http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/politics/alba...

Mercedes or Volvo getting caught with a product in the ways Tesla has been getting caught would be unacceptable to their customers. The brand damage would be massive. Tesla as 'the new kid on the block' has a lot of leeway to mess up that you would never accept from an established brand. The whole autopilot saga is an excellent example.

By the time Volvo or Mercedes release a next level self driving car you can simply expect it to work, all the time. Until then they will release small incremental steps on their 'driver assist' technology.

I think the opposite is happening - that Tesla is under much more scrutiny because they're the new one on the block. Because the established automakers have done some terrible shit, which would absolutely kill Tesla as a company.

I'll gladly find sources and further elaborate, if you're interested.

> That goes double for the taxi companies like Uber, Lyft, Juno, etc.

The interesting thing is that you didn’t mention Mercedes Benz.

Mercedes Benz owns a few carsharing and Taxi apps in Europe, almost all Taxi operators lease cars from Mercedes Benz (which, in return, gets better deals with them), Mercedes Benz licensed the entire Tesla IP and has used it already in one model, and they’ve got their own electric cars and self-driving prototypes as well as self-driving trucks.

Mercedes Benz is the most likely candidate to build a vertically integrated Taxi solution. They’ve got deals with all major cities, with Taxi operators, they own the IP, they’ve got the apps and the infrastructure, and they’ve got the required prototypes.