You mean that the rich upstart company bankrolled by an insanely stupid billionaire that's basically gone bust multiple times in its 18 year history, which hasn't sold as many cars in its entire history as Ford does in a year, suddenly isn't able to compete even in its own area of "expertise" (*cough*) now that the traditional manufacturers are dialling down their ICE production (which was only there to make most use of its patents and tooling before they become obsolete forever) now that most countries have set a deadline for ending such engines?

You mean that as soon as the traditional manufacturers went "Sigh, yeah, okay then", their collective R&D budget (which outpaces Tesla's actual income many times over) absolutely trounces a so-called "tech" company at its own game, but in a safe way instead of a "let's just kill people but not mention it" kind of way?

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you. If only I said that... well, before most people had even heard of a Tesla.

Back in the age of saber tooth cats, Popular Science Magazine had an article about the new "super highways". Each lane was for different speeds, 70, 80, 90, 100 mph. Your vehicle was controlled by a device mounted beside the engine and picked up signals from a wire embedded in the road. You got to speed in one lane, moved to the next and so on until you traveled at the desired speed. The device maintained safe distance between vehicles, kept speed at the desired rate, and handled all driving needs such as steering and selecting radio stations as you traveled across country. You put in the destination you wanted to get off and you were eased into the slower traffic toward your exit point.

They didn't address the needs of the driver and passenger, such as restroom and dining stops, or the need to refuel the vehicle. I guess there would have been male/female "relief tubes" to handle the wet end of that problem.

A really good idea that didn't catch on. Since the advent of EVs, this would have been a good way to power the electric motors on long trips, with a chance to recharge along the way. Toll stations at the exits would bill for miles driven for the EV.

And in our actual dumb modern world:

Sports car driver - I can accelerate faster than the fast lane before the onramp ends. (swerves into fast lane at 100 MPH)

Prius driver - Prius coming through! Prius heading to the Prius lane. (swerves into fast lane at 35 MPH)

Tesla driver - ... (texting)

12 cars totaled, 4 cars on fire, 5000 people stuck in traffic.

Elmo's insistence that they remove all the sensors except the cameras can't be helping. Humans can drive with only one eye, but the car doesn't understand what it's actually seeing so it will chase people carrying stop signs and various other stupid things. The real win comes in giving cars better sensors than people can ever hope to have (like LIDAR) and then working with that info.

Consumer Reports isn't really an unbiased actor here. There methodology isn't robust and many of their criteria aren't that relevant. So from a credibility standpoint you might be tempted to write it off as hot garbage from a company that is now dependent on kickbacks and uses every dark pattern in the books to keep billing people.

Read between the lines it still points out a bunch of serious problems. Tesla FIRED most of the self drive team quite a while ago. The self drive system hasn't evolved much, and it has been losing features faster than is has been gaining them(many because they were unsafe/didn't really work).

The CR staff roast Tesla for losing focus on the performance of self drive over other features, then with the other hand tars them for not implementing the same new features that the other manufactures did that aren't part of the self drive. The driver attention nagware is garbage too, but only to the extent that it distracts drivers by constantly cutting out the other driving features and making drivers fiddle with controls. They also tend to be badly biased in there performance, and the farther you are from the norm of what a GM systems engineer looks like, the more problems you will have. These systems are expensive, complicated, and not much more consistent.

Tesla's "attention" system is too far the other way perhaps, but so are the standard systems from most of the other majors. So it's disingenuous to call them out by name and not mention the others that don't offer it at all, or hold it back to some vehicles or trims.

And the article, like so many other cut and paste factoids keeps referring to the percentage of self drive accidents that are Telsas without clarifying how many crashes per vehicle/mile. More Teslas driving more miles = more accidents. Is this bad relative to the other companies they are shilling for this week? Is it better? And how many of those drivers were idiots? Were they even in the drivers seat? Impossible to say without more information, so why keep dropping the unqualified and misleading factoid?

I've read CR's car reviews since my first car back in 1972. In the ensuing years, not one of their reviews or opinions reflected my actual experience with the cars I've owned or driven. Some of their tests are so far from reality as to be laughable. How many people go down the road swerving back and forth like a slalom skier, except for drunks. I truly believe their reports are based on the comments made by the gripers and grousers who will complain if their ambient lighting (whatever the hell that's for) doesn't match their shirt colour. The ones who have no problems are quiet or ignored.

I’ll stick with my ICEosaur.

I have a 2014 Lincoln MKZ with the Technology package. I already knew its lane keeping feature will cause the steering to "rumble" if I cross the road line. It get especially upset if pass someone without using the turn signal (using the signals when changing lanes is mandatory under Ohio law). What I didn't realise until recently is it will keep the MKZ fairly well centered in the middle of the lane by itself. I discovered this during a sneezing jag. I wouldn't want to test it on a curve but it worked fine on the straight. That and the adjustable distance monitor are all I really need. Anything else is just more gimmickry and costly repairs.

Oh, and by the way, every car I've owned since my 1972 Pinto has had blind spot monitoring. It's called properly adjusting the wing mirrors.