Well, Mercedes takes legal responsibility for its Autopilot, unlike Tesla.
First of all, the Tesla Autopilot is not full self driving. The Autopilot is an assistant system combining distance aware cruise control with lane keeping (autosteer) and lane changing. It always requires full driver attention.
The Mercedes system has gotten legally recognized as a level 3 system, which allows the driver to stop paying attention when the system is active and for that Mercedes takes legal responsibility. There is even an european law allowing for that. However, the Mercedes system has one big catch: it can be only activated on selected, mapped roads (interstate equivalents with lane dividers) and only up to 40mph speed.
Tesla FSD (full self driving) is a completely new system for autonomous driving. It is currently in a beta testing phase. Currently it also requires full driver attention and is available only to a subset of the customers as part of the testing. It is however designed to handle any traffic situation on any road.
The system will deactivate and hand control (and liability) right back to the human just in the nick of time if it encounters any marginal conditions (stormy weather, presence of emergency vehicles, etc…).
So it looks like just an attempt to one-up Tesla with a marketing gimmick.
Tesla doesn't even have a PR department… they closed it.
>Tesla puts way more marketing BS than others
link?
waiting…
With unbreakable windows (forbidden for safety, otherwise there would not be carjackings anymore).
And Mercedes promised self driving taxis "in three years from now" back in 2017 so… Tesla is not alone is delivering this later than expected.
https://www.wired.com/2017/04/mercedes-promises-self-driving...
https://futurism.com/elon-musk-teslas-autonomous-car-will-dr...
(spoiler: it didn't as of 2022)
Sure! Let's test the glass on a Volkswagen Golf:
- https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-tesla-cars-being-produced-now...
- https://jalopnik.com/elon-musk-promises-full-self-driving-ne...
- The second one has been debunked repeatedly. Elon has predicted self driving dates (wrongly), not promised them. A prediction is not a promise.
Mercedes is two years late on this "promise" too if we're doing that. Sure, Elon has been making his wrong predictions for more years, but now Mercedes is copying him:
https://www.wired.com/2017/04/mercedes-promises-self-driving...
So your claim is that Teslas had "the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver" five years ago, conveniently ignoring the fact that the hardware has changed multiple times since then and even more conveniently ignoring the fact that Tesla still doesn't have a full self-driving product. Sorry, but that's bullshit.
> The second one has been debunked repeatedly
So your claim is that there are 1 million Tesla robotaxis operating on the roads right now. This too is plainly bullshit.
Clearly Tesla's advertising has worked on you. The advertising has worked so well that you're fully bought into the bullshit to the point of irrationality.
Taxi timeline was a prediction, not a promise. Elon. Can. Be. Wrong.
Hardware is not software. The hardware working depends on software that is not done yet.
Some hardware has been upgraded to be sure. The jury is still out on whether that old claim will pan out, pending future software updates. I doubt it will, but I think it was made in earnestness, not as “BS”.
So you agree: it's bullshit.
> I doubt it will, but I think it was made in earnestness, not as “BS”.
No, it's just bullshit. Musk's strategy is to keep telling bigger lies because there are always more suckers to fleece. His latest bullshit is the Tesla Bot.
It might not look like your usual company's advertising or marketing, but it's there.
Their Youtube channel[1] is full of it. Watch this[2] and tell me that's not an ad. It's a perfect example of an advertisement.
They might not have a department that is called a PR department, but they do PR.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5WjFrtBdufl6CZojX3D8dQ
If you choose to use some kind of driver assist to get you there that’s a decision you as the driver made and you are responsible for the consequences of that.