One company builds a ride hailing app while the other builds one of the premier, high-performance EVs in the world with significant levels of driver assistance, over the air updates, and world-class onboard perception that industry incumbents readily admit is "years" ahead of their own development.
How exactly would you characterize the comparison?
Uber is more of a tech company in that their entire value is based on internet connectivity (while Tesla could take a 99% market cap hit and still put together metal on an assembly line), but Uber is less impressive since it's just an app and an API connecting drivers to people and sometimes throwing a restaurant in the mix.
People forget these days that technology (i.e. “tech companies”) does not equate to the internet, which is a just small subset. Technology is defined as “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry.”
maxlamb captured my sentiment exactly... tech is not synonymous with "internet connectivity".
Modern vehicles (ICE or EV) are vastly more sophisticated than "putting together metal on an assembly line" -- they're modern marvels of all the physical sciences: chemistry, thermodynamics, materials science, electronics, mechanics, aerodynamics, wireless connectivity, reliability, safety, real-time controls, computer vision, sensing, and on & on & on. Vehicles are vastly more "technological" than most mobile phone apps, especially one like Uber.
Pure software companies may (rightfully) fetch higher valuations, but that's simply due to the nature of their economics: higher margins, pricing power (oligopoly?), and negligible incremental unit costs.
It’s just my perception, but Tesla and Google both have track records of developing new technology IP to overcome their challenges. Uber’s record is not the same, they don’t have any hard to reproduce software or technology IP at the core of their business. Their strength is the brand that has quickly entrenched itself in many cities fighting public legislation to satisfy its goals.
Uber has yet to show a vehicle with any semblance of reliable autonomy. Tesla has billions of experience miles at Level 2 autonomy (Navigate on Autopilot is close to, but not quite, level 3 autonomy).
I personally believe that level 3 is completely useless. It requires the driver to be completely aware and ready to take over the driving with a second notice whenever the car gets in over it's head.
It seems like level 3 is more dangerous than a 100% manual car.
Even high-end level 2 seems dangerous.
Until we get self driving cars to level 4, were they don't require the driver to play attention, I don't think self driving cars should be on the road.
I think they mean the green bits there are the part where the car can be relied on to drive by itself (with the blue bits requiring constant attention).
Arguing about what to call it is boring. Is Tesla close to having a system that can drive without attention, decide it isn't sure what to do and safely request driver attention? Or does it just have the bit that can successfully navigate a lot of situations?
Having driven across the US almost 30k miles on Navigate On Autopilot in our Teslas, I’d argue the former (“Is Tesla close to having a system that can drive without attention, decide it isn't sure what to do and safely request driver attention?”). Attention is given, but intervention is rare, even in construction zones (only done when zones are inactive, not with workers present for obvious reasons). Interstate to interstate transitions, passing of slow vehicles without our intervention (“lane changes without confirmation” feature) is mostly flawless.
Edit: if I didn’t make it clear, Tesla vehicles safely hand over responsibility to the driver when path planning confidence has been lost. If you don’t take over, the vehicle comes to a stop with the hazards on. If you haven’t, I recommend taking a free test drive yourself to better understand the system constraints and UX.
If the system/software to safely hand over control isn't present in the vehicle, what does driving 30k miles demonstrate about how close they are to deploying it?
Much of the distinction between level 2 and level 3 is that the vehicle reliably hands over control. Successfully navigating situations doesn't provide much information about how close that capability might be.
Level 2 means the driver always has responsibility.
It's good that the Tesla system stops making inputs when it doesn't know what to do. That's different than the Tesla system having full control and safely notifying the occupant that they need to start driving.
