Self-driving, Tesla and the influence of brand

I've been a Stratechery subscriber since it started and one thing I have noticed about Ben is that he occasionally gets a little overexcited about stuff that is probably not totally close to his wheelhouse. This is one of those times.In his opening about Tesla's brand halo, he notes:I know plenty of very rich people who drive a Tesla not for the finishes but rather the Full Self-Driving (Supervised); there is nothing like it on the market, at least when it comes to cars you can own.(Emboldening is mine). The problem is, Ben is simply wrong to say "there's nothing like it on the market" and it's a perfect illustration of the impact of both Tesla's brand halo, and why brand matters a lot in cars.Where Ben is sort-of correct about FSD (Supervised) is that it does have a genuine and distinctive strength: breadth of coverage. Tesla doesn't limit FSD to a pre-mapped road network. If the cameras see usable lane lines and the system is confident enough, it will typically engage. FSD extends…