The only one forcing that argument is Musk. No one has a problem with Honda or Toyota or Cadillac’s driver assist systems, because they call them various synonyms of “driver assist.” Musk, however, calls it “full self driving” when it’s not. And when people object that no one in authority has signed off on the idea that the cars can drive themselves, Musk winks and makes it out as though his cars can perform fully autonomous driving, and it’s just that those sticks-in-the-mud in the government won’t admit it. I remember one Tesla rep who was hocking Teslas talked to me at an SCCA race. He told me “yeah, I drove all the way here from Minneapolis on autopilot. I just read a book.” These are Tesla reps, telling people that it’s OK to let the car do the driving while they do something more entertaining.
And people buy Teslas with “full self driving” and then let the cars drive themselves, and cause crashes.
The bottom line is that consumers will take advantage of advertised conveniences even if those conveniences don’t really exist. So it behooves the automakers not to give them the idea that the cars can drive themselves without the driver having to pay attention. No one’s trying to stop responsible automakers from implementing driver assist systems. But one irresponsible blowhard pretending his car can do something it can’t is getting people killed.