The point of the author seems that autopilot is better than FSD for him:

Without FSD, you pay attention to the road and everything else is within your control. With FSD, you still need to pay attention but now there’s the additional cognitive load to monitor an unpredictable system over which you don’t have direct control. Forget about just being focused, you need to be hyper-focused, and you need to pay $99 per month or a one time fee of $12,000 for the privilege. With the limited functionality of autopilot, you hit the sweet spot: adaptive cruise control and lane centering work reliably, and you don’t need to worry about any other mischief.

Another week of Tesla bashing, I guess. 😁

My guess, because it is too expensive for too little benefit. Nobody would buy it. Discussed here previously.

According to forecasts from Counterpoint Research, China will have 1mn cars with so-called Level 3 technology — which means drivers can remove their hands from the steering wheel — by 2026, and these vehicles will account for about 10 per cent of new cars by 2028.

Oh, here the author is not quite right. I assume he refers to SAE level 3. This is not about “remove their hands from the steering wheel”. If you still have to “constantly supervise” the car, you are still level 2. Some call “hands-off” as level 2.5, but it certainly isn’t enough for level 3.

So far, actual level 3 cars are only made by Honda, Mercedes, and BMW. The upgrade costs thousands of dollars and is only available in few luxury cars.

I can imagine 1mn “hands-off” cars in 2026 but not “level 3”.