Many have grown disillusioned with Tesla because of the pace of the Robotaxi rollout but when we zoom out, it's a very clear picture of how hard autonomy really is. Just look at what's happened with Waymo in the past few months alone:
• Gen 5 hits a child
• Illegally passing school buses with active red lights
• Fully blocked a street obstructing ambulance and first responders en route to a mass shooting. Officers had to move the vehicle
• 6 vehicles failed to recognize ramp closure signs and drove into active freeway construction zones (TX)
• 7 vehicles drove between cones and entered freeway construction lanes (CA)
• Waymo voluntarily restricted its entire fleet from all freeway and highway operations
• NHTSA recall covering all 3,791 cars after vehicles drove into flooded roads
• Waymo suspends service in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Nashville
We all know Tesla could easily scale beyond where it is right now, but Tesla will not receive the same "turn the other way" treatment that Waymo gets from the media and the public
Some of the frustration is warranted given poor expectations being set by Tesla, but it's not like anyone else is doing any better
And all of the companies talking about their big plans (Rivian, Lucid) - it's going to be just that for years to come...talk and promises to feel like they're part of the game with no real scale or volume
Tesla is still far and away the best positioned company to reach scale, it's just going to take longer than most of us thought $TSLA