I doubt Geohotz didn't do his homework before he made this conclusion. He went to CMU, Google and Facebook and had worked with the smartest professors/scientists/engineers in the field of AI before he founded Comma.ai. He's pretty much single-handed built a level 3 drive assist prototype within a year where other companies spent billions and many years R&D but not even came close to what he was originally intended to release.[1]
So when George said, "there are only three real competitors: Waymo, Tesla and us." What he really says is that Comma.ai's technology is on par with Waymo and Tesla's. The rest of the companies are either subpar or have no existing product to demo, likely both.
He also famously said "shippability" is the biggest differentiator between Comma One and the rest but decided not to fight the uphill legal battle being that he's taking the Android approach to grab the market share.
So when George said, "there are only three real competitors: Waymo, Tesla and us." What he really says is that Comma.ai's technology is on par with Waymo and Tesla's. The rest of the companies are either subpar or have no existing product to demo, likely both.
He also famously said "shippability" is the biggest differentiator between Comma One and the rest but decided not to fight the uphill legal battle being that he's taking the Android approach to grab the market share.
So, I kinda buy it.
[1]: http://www.thedrive.com/tech/5772/the-cancelled-comma-one-wo...