Tesla's Data Hoard and Lofty Promises
Of course, you can’t talk about autonomous cars without mentioning Tesla. For years, they’ve been the poster child of electric autonomy, vacuuming up billions of miles of real-world driving data from their massive fleet. On paper, this gives them a colossal head start. Their ability to train their systems on this mountain of information is an advantage that’s hard for rivals to replicate.
The company’s all-in-one approach, controlling everything from the battery to the software, is either a stroke of genius or a spectacular risk. They aren't relying on anyone else for the critical bits. Yet, for all the data and slick presentations, their Full Self-Driving still feels like it’s just around the corner, and has been for quite some time. The question for any investor is whether that corner is about to be turned, or if it leads onto another very long road.