One issue is that MATLAB is a hilariously inappropriate tool for any real software engineering, including robotics. What's worse is that it's just powerful enough to empower your traditional PE to be dangerous.
MATLAB's Stateflow toolkit is actually excellent for robotics engineering. Without more information, that MATLAB declaration in the article could mean many things.
MATLAB is fantastic for prototyping.
If people approach self-driving car development like any other development, prototypes can easily become the final product.