This is one of those topics where I hate to post my opinion, because I know it's not going to be popular among the forum audience...
I have to preface this by saying I have zero regrets about buying my car. It is, by a very large margin, the finest vehicle I have ever owned. Tesla is now my car brand; I honestly don't think I'll ever buy any other marque again in my remaining years.
The only area that I'm disappointed in is the autopilot/FSD. Yes, I know it's still early in the game, but IMO, it is not nearly as far along in the development process as Mr. Musk is telling everyone. They keep saying "it's all about chasing the long tail", referring to all the digits to the right of the decimal point. And I completely agree with that. The problem is that they are no where even close to being to the first digit to the right of the decimal point. In its current state, AP/FSD is nothing more than a curiosity.. a toy to play with on the road, not even close to being a useful tool yet.
The vehicle I traded in for my Tesla was a 2016 Honda Accord with Lane Keeping Assist and Advanced Cruise Control. Man, I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but the LKA and ACC worked better in that car than my Model 3 with FSD. The Honda never phantom braked, held the lane perfectly, and had far smoother braking and acceleration when following a vehicle than my Model 3. Sure, it didn't do navigate on autopilot, but the
core functionality of keeping a lane and following a car with cruise control was much, much better. Just improving the core functionality of lane keeping and car following would have a positive impact on how drivers view AP/FSD, IMO.
I have no doubt that Tesla will get there, and we will eventually have the robo taxi fleet Mr. Musk talked about during the Autonomy Day presentation. But it is going to be much further down the road (please forgive the unintentional pun) than his very pie-in-the-sky timeline he gave during Autonomy day.
Still, I don't regret paying for FSD. To me, it's like backing a Kickstarter project that I believe in at this point. Mr. Musk has, for the most part, always delivered on what he says he's going to accomplish (sure, there are a few exceptions, but he's delivered on the major stuff), including producing a car which, to me, is the finest vehicle I've ever owned. If it's possible for him to produce the best car I've ever owned, is it possible for him to make it drive itself? I think so... eventually.
And honestly, the car is so fun to drive that I don't want the computer to have all the fun!
It all boils down to your opinion... Do you believe in Mr. Musks' vision? Do you think he'll be able to pull off what he says he's going to? Are you willing to help him out financially to do so? I answered yes to those questions. No, I don't think he'll pull it off according to his timeline, but we all know that Elon's space/time continuum is much different than the rest of the population of the planet.
We all have differing opinions on this, and I respect all of them. Vote your opinion with your wallet.
Now pardon me while I put on my flame suit... Be gentle, gents.. I'm old and fragile.
