Elon operates by setting impossible goals and under delivering on them but still going faster than all the other players. Most FSD buyers are reasonably aware of the gamble they are taking.
If Tesla turns out to not be capable of deliver FSD, it's a straightforward class action to refund everyone. Meanwhile they are trying hard to build the damn thing and my kudos for that.
The reality distortion field in action. "Hey no big deal they're straight up lying to consumers and putting their lives in danger!"
They are nowhere near Waymo, who is doing actually driverless rides for the public. Tesla's confidence level is still at "you need to keep your hands on the wheel at all times".
For example, you come up to a 4-way intersection and a traffic cop there signals you to stop and says you can't go through because all the man-hole covers are off, but since you want to turn left you can go through the parking lot of the corner gas station to get onto the other road.
For another example, right after the st-patrick's day parade is over or right after the college town's team has just won the NCAA championship, the street is full of people and the car has to inch forward at a rate of half of a mile per hour and the pedestrians don't get out of the way until the car is about to touch them.
The examples you gave sound like scenarios where remote operator would instruct "don't go there, go here" and the car does it by itself. But specifically about the traffic cop, it can actually detect hand signals from them (can't find the video though).
In my state this is explicitly illegal. You may not use a parking lot as a thoroughfare, regardless of convenience.
Waymo also has the sum total of CAPTCHA learning for them.
Tesla is trying to solve a much more difficult problem. It’s unclear if they will.
Having multiple orthogonal subsets of the electromagnetic spectrum at your disposal provides redundancy and diversity - two features that simply CANNOT be accommodated with a single class of sensor, not matter how advanced it may be.
Of all the self-driving companies it is likely that Tesla is dead last, behind Waymo, Cruise, Aurora, and Zoox.
Meanwhile, Tesla autopilot accelerates towards the walls or parked vehicles. Tell me again how Tesla is "at the forefront in the field".
And possibly a few deaths, yeah.