Hyped tech

Tesla Motors has made a big impression on the public. Its CEO drives the company to thrilling innovation, but there's some skepticism that Tesla will ever be able to deliver on all its promises.

Since the Model 3 was unveiled last spring, Tesla has received over 400,000 pre-orders from excited fans who paid $1000 each. Those wannabe customers - and the general public - want Tesla to succeed. But the risk that it won't succeed is still uncomfortably high.

A key element of excitement about Tesla is its promise that autonomous (self-driving) cars are really coming soon. But technical experts think fully autonomous (also known as Level 5) cars are not even on the horizon.

Incremental improvements, like "predictive brake priming" by Mercedes-Benz, can bring us a little closer. But what's required for a driver to completely disengage (like, go to sleep) is a level of complexity beyond all the improvement tweaks. See tomorrow's post.