alt Hacker NewsI have a personal project organizing who was talking about AVs when, so I would genuinely like a source for Tesla talking about self driving before 2009 if you have one. The earliest Tesla discussion I'm aware of is autopilot, which was announced in 2013 in an off-the-cuff interview comment. Dedicated hiring and talks with mobileye began in late 2013/early 2014. That effort later evolved into "enhanced autopilot" several years later after the two companies fell out, which is where I drew the line for "navigation".
I can't imagine a date significantly earlier than 2009. Musk himself only became CEO in 2008, and 2007 was the second grand challenge.
Also my Tesla drives me to work every day just fine without intervention.
I understand I'm legally driving but the broad point here is whether a screen is enough or if I should have buttons. The way I interact with the car is screen oriented, and the car is sufficiently autonomous that I don't need to rely on a button which never moves. I enter an address on my phone, get in my car, push the brake, and it drives me somewhere.
Similarly I don't know the exact date Tesla started talking about FSD/Autopilot, but they've certainly been talking about it for as long as I've been aware of the brand.
Obviously the 2009 prototype has buttons and as I've already mentioned it doesn't have cameras, but the point stands. Tesla has oriented the features and experience in a way where just having a screen makes a lot of sense. VW just added a screen and hasn't made moves to back it up with other features or with similarly involved regular updates. I think it makes sense for Tesla to continue building cars with just a screen, whereas if VW won't take advantage of the screen they should add buttons back, at least in my opinion.