Tesla frenemy BYD pegs self-driving a pipe dream as it vows EV market dominance in 3-5 years

During BYD's annual shareholder meeting, the Chairman of Tesla's biggest competitor expressed scepticism that the fully autonomous driving feature Elon Musk banks on for Tesla's future will ever happen. Legal and regulatory hurdles will prevent features like Tesla's Full Self-Driving mode to ever get out of their Beta stage, he informed the audience. Even if there is a favorable change in autonomous driving regulations, automakers would still be on the hook for brand value destruction of each and every particular model if even one bad accident happens, he added.

That's not to say that BYD is against autonomous technologies, but its Chairman is of the opinion that they will remain driver-assist features that will be very hard to make significant money out of. This is contrary to Elon Musk's opinion that Tesla will pull off Full Self-Driving and could even license it to other car companies at some point.

BYD also expects to become the biggest automaker in China by the end of the year and said it is best positioned to take advantage of the EV revolution sweeping the industry. In the next 3-5 year, its Chairman Wang expects it to gain even more market share than it has now as the world's second largest EV maker after Tesla. That will also be the critical period that automakers have to make it on the other side of the electric vehicle transition relatively unscathed, said Wang.

BYD has done the hard part already, he noted, building a formidable EV portfolio and supply chain, and it will now focus on expansion, including overseas where it intends to become the most competitive ambassador of China's EV industry. Elon Musk recently commented that BYD is now "highly competitive" indeed, and the next few years will show who will swim and who will sink in the breakneck EV transition rapids.

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