How It Is Going

How It Started on 2023-07-27

The Full Self Driving story started back in 2013, but I’m not going that far back in time, partly because my own recollection of events is fuzzy about what Elon claimed back then. I’m starting from this year, and Elon declared that with v12, Full Self Driving was going out of beta (therefore implying for the general public that it will indeed be true Full Self Driving). Source: Electrek

How I See It Going

Full Self Driving will not be out of beta in 2023.

How It Is Going as of 2023-09-28

As of 2023-09-28, your Tesla still can’t fetch your bread and newspaper for you.

In October 2016, Tesla released a promotional video entitled “Full Self-Driving Hardware on All Teslas.” It was later admitted by employees that the video had been very carefully prepared and edited. Source : Tesla’s Director of Autopilot software as reported by The Verge

How It Actually Went

Not there yet.

How It Started on 2023-09-12

During the iPhone event of September 2023, Apple made a movie claiming it plans to be carbon neutral by 2030. Source: as of September 2023, it’s right there on their YouTube channel.

How I See It Going

They will not reach that goal, not by a long shot. When you are one of the biggest producers of electronics on the planet, it is impossible, especially when you are (mostly) against the right to repair and design devices with very low repairability scores. It’s wishful thinking at best and pure PR bullshit at worst. At some point, the movie will be discreetly removed from Apple’s materials.

How It Is Going

Not there yet.

How It Actually Went

Not there yet.

How it is going is based on a simple idea: corporations make a lot of promises. Carbon neutrality. Inclusivity. Responsibility. They promise to revolutionize the world with millions of robotaxis and full self-driving. They say they’re going to make smartphones obsolete with a little something in your pocket. Having observed this game for several years, I can say this: the main goal of many (but not all) of these press releases is to (a) get free publicity and (b) reduce the psychological guilt of potential buyers.

This is how I got the idea of “How it is going.” I’m going to track the press releases promises of several companies:

• What they promised, when, and for which deadline.
• What my prognosis is: from “yep totally going to do it” to “utter bullshit.”
• We reach the set deadline I’m going to document what they actually achieved.

There are the companies that are true to their word. There are the companies that actually mean well but set goals that they know are unattainable. And there are the companies that plainly lie. When possible, I intend to make a distinction between companies based on their past track record.

The irony is that I have no idea how this project will be going. This is just a start. I know I need to make a few changes to the architecture of my blog to add tags per company, dates, etc., but I think an imperfect start is better than waiting forever to implement the project. So let the good times roll!