This assumes that the path to a self driving car is a smooth function that you can incrementally follow, rather than automatic parking and collision warnings ju

This assumes that the path to a self driving car is a smooth function that you can incrementally follow, rather than automatic parking and collision warnings just being easy problems compared to the messiness of general driving. No company is indispensable in the evolution of a market, but I think it is possible that abandoning the incremental approach and starting with the full problem will turn out to be the one to get us all the way there, instead of a car that can correct oversteer and warn us in 90% of situations that we're about to make a mistake. Of course, like with many products, once one group shows the way, the only thing holding everyone else back is patents and data (especially geographic in this case).