Tesla pulled off something pretty impressive, but a little suspicious. They let a Model Y drive itself 15 miles from their factory to a customer’s apartment with no one inside. But the timing of this left some in suspicion as this happened right before Tesla reports what everyone expects to be terrible quarterly numbers.
Let’s give credit where it’s due. The car handled some genuinely tough scenarios like highway merges, roundabouts and unprotected left turns in real traffic. A few years ago, these scenarios would have confused most self-driving cars. That’s actual progress. However, there are still considerations. Tesla has a track record of flashy demos that don’t correlate to everyday reality. Remember their 2016 ‘self-driving’ video? Turns out they practiced that route multiple times and had to take control several times before getting a clean run. Classic smoke and mirrors.
It’s not about whether Tesla can do this once. Rather, it’s whether they can do it hundreds or thousands of times without problems. One successful trip doesn’t prove that the technology is ready for prime time. It just proves they got lucky once or maybe they prepared extensively for this specific route. Meanwhile, companies like Waymo are actually running robotaxis in multiple cities and handling similar driving challenges but with way more caution and testing. They’re less flashy but more focused on making sure their cars work consistently.
The most telling detail? Even Tesla’s harshest critic could only complain that the car was parked in a fire lane. That’s actually pretty minor for a first attempt but it shows that the technology still struggles with complex rules and social situations. Tesla’s strategy is evident. They’re marketing with spectacular demos while the competition builds boring but reliable systems. It works for headlines and stock prices but the real test is whether customers will trust their lives to technology that’s more show than substance.
At the end of the day, it’s about customer retention and trust, not marketing capital and advertisement.
