Exactly. You don't think people will get jealous when their friends and neighbors rave about how their Tesla just got this great new feature that installed itself overnight for free?
This is exactly what the author was talking about: automakers are still fighting the last war and trying to match feature bullet points. Tesla has changed the game.
> If it actually started to hurt existing automakers
Automakers are already aware of how much everyone hates buying a car because of the Stealership Experience (TM). This is just another way Tesla has changed the game and for structural reasons their competitors won't be able to catch up.
It has many parallels to cell phones and Apple with the iPhone: for years the old giants (Nokia, RIM, Sony-Ericsson) floundered without a competitive response. There were deep structural problems in the way the manufacturer-carrier relationship was setup that prevented them from responding. They also lacked the ability and will to develop a platform ecosystem - a feat only a few companies have ever really accomplished and almost all of them are on the US West Coast.
There is another parallel: for the first few years their profits and stock kept rising. In 2008 RIM had no idea they were about to be evicerated - they posted record profits! Ask them how well things turned out here in 2017.