Musk promised full self-driving cars by 2019.

And that is a problem because?, all marketing everywhere is over-promise and under-deliver. At least he delivered on most things he promised.

>And that is a problem because?

this is a problem because it introduces the same kind of bait-and-switch anti-consumer behavior we see with the sale of pre-release games, but on an automotive investment level.

"Buy this car and it'll have additional feature X in year Y. Don't listen to the non-believers, me and my team have this solved."

"Woops! Turns out that was harder than I thought, sorry to all the folks that bought this car under the premise that they'd get feature X. Better luck next time, it wasn't contractual; just some over-promised under-deliveries, you understand! It's marketing to lie to your face!"

> but on an automotive investment level.

I think that ship has sailed a long time ago... especially after emissions scandal.

Also, have you looked at marketing in general?, is anyone actually telling the truth anywhere?

At least this was a promise that they'll do their best.

> "Buy this car and it'll have additional feature X in year Y. Don't listen to the non-believers, me and my team have this solved."

Does anybody buy 50K+ cars on promises?, especially since all reviews are very honest.

For me, they're gimmicks... but the inner child in me seeing the celebration mode on model X makes me want to buy it. Then I research it and find it's actually a great car, sure, no full self driving, but for 10K on top of 150K+ the features added are great.

Have a look: https://youtu.be/pXvIzWhEWvA?t=400

It creates a lot of noise when he says things. Even technical people buy into it.

I’ve seen people on HN use the excuse “humans only use vision to drive”, reaffirming Musk.

We’d like self-driving to be a solved problem in some form sooner rather than later. Millions are hurt or die in cars every year. It’s ok if we “cheat” with Lidar, etc

Of course, we are ignoring the fact that people are paying extra for what they think will eventually give them self-driving.

What did he deliver on? He is the definition of a marketing scam.

What good is Tesla doing for the environment? Seems like they're at best giving people an option that is a bit less destructive if they were to have purchased a new car anyway

Allows people to move away from fossil fuels.

They can't keep up with demand, all their inventory is sold, so it's displacing a lot of regular car sales.

They're displacing a lot of regular car sales, but it's not clear to me how the manufacturing and operation of a Tesla is a net positive for the environment. You could also just walk or take public transit and you'd be doing arguably more.