Part 12/15:
Market Competition and the Battle for AI Supremacy
Fitzgerald underscores that Tesla’s AI advantage hinges on its massive, real-world data collection, superior neural nets, and hardware-software integration. He dismisses the notion that other automakers can catch up quickly, citing Chinese automakers like BYD and Xiaomi as formidable competitors but still behind Tesla due to data access and inference capabilities.
He highlights Tesla’s extensive hardware investment since 2012, which positions the company ahead in autonomous driving technology. Tesla’s ability to upgrade existing vehicles with software updates makes its fleet uniquely capable of full autonomy without needing new hardware.