>The Silicon Valley style of “fake it till you make it” business is dishonest.

And is lapped up by all the mass media contributing to Musk building a brand to rival Mercedes while spending $0 on advertising.

It's quite something, isn't it? You don't have to like it either. Seems that a lot of the USA really does. P.T.Barnum and all that.

Yet to see other auto manufacturers come anywhere near Tesla’s driver assistance system.

> Yet to see other auto manufacturers come anywhere near Tesla’s driver assistance system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsb2XBAIWyA

There is nothing more to say about the 'glorious Tesla driver assistance system'. It can't even do basic tasks with super slow speed, no moving objects and all time in the world.

Saying what a Tesla can't do, or do well, doesn't really respond to the parent. There are people using Tesla to drive on city streets in traffic. It'd be fair to say it doesn't always work, and it isn't reliable, but are there other consumer cars that drive themselves through a town?

There aren't any consumer cars that drive themselves through a town. Tesla has a system that assists a human driver through town. This is an important distinction and hand-waving it away is exactly the dishonest and dangerous business practice I was referring to above. Industry academics and practitioners everywhere (including Tesla's rank and file) make the distinction.

https://www.sae.org/blog/sae-j3016-update

Which criteria of the level 3 does FSD fail? I don’t understand since it seems perfectly capable of driving by itself under many, many circumstances, many towns being among those. I just looked at the graphic behind your link, and FSD fulfills all of the requirements, and frankly basic autopilot does as well. Many automakers offer level 3 currently, Tesla of course having been first, but you’re right in saying that none offer level 4.

To me, the distinction between level 4 and level 5 seems abysmally stupid as well - how could you leave out the pedals and steering wheel if the car can’t operate by itself under all conditions, meaning level 4 = level 5. Maybe I just don’t have the IQ to understand what the industry academics and practitioners are conveying here.

Tesla does not offer a level 3 system. When using Tesla FSD, the driver is still responsible for supervising the operation of the system at all times and must intervene when and if the system makes an incorrect input. See the second row in the above-linked graphic.

Also see Tesla's site (buried in the support pages, rather than the marketing copy):

> FSD Beta is an SAE Level 2 driver support feature that can provide steering and braking/acceleration support to the driver under certain operating limitations. With FSD Beta, as with all SAE Level 2 driver support features, the driver is responsible for operation of the vehicle whenever the feature is engaged and must constantly supervise the feature and intervene (e.g., steer, brake or accelerate) as needed to maintain safe operation of the vehicle.

https://www.tesla.com/support/recall-fsd-beta-driving-operat...