It is not at all clear to me that Tesla has succeeded in creating anything but another luxury car brand, like Mercedes or Rolls Royce, except unprofitable.

Without getting into the psychology of brand fanboyism, the broader case for Tesla has always been that it forced the rest of the auto industry forward, re: EVs.

Except, it’s not at all clear that they actually did that in any demonstrable way.

Boring normal auto manufacturers like Honda, Ford and Toyota have had the tech to do EVs forever, but the demand and battery tech wasn’t fully there. Seems like that’s starting to change. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a34896309/toyota-electric-cars-plans-revealed/

Guys who are into cars seem to like Tesla cars and that’s fine, because people like what they like. But if EVs go mainstream, it’ll be from the boring normal car companies who know how to manufacture at scale, not Tesla; and it’ll be because of emissions standards.

Moreover, real autonomous cars aren’t happening for a very long time. In 2030, cars with any significant level of autonomy whatsoever will be a vanishingly small fraction of the US fleet. The exuberance on this subject never ceases to amaze me.