That's how fraud works, not marketing.

It’s not fraud when you’re just over-optimistic, you believe what you’re saying, and you end up being wrong.

It might suck, but it’s not fraud.

> It’s not fraud when you’re just over-optimistic, you believe what you’re saying, and you end up being wrong.

"It's not a lie if you believe it."

-- G. Costanza

Exactly. Doesn't mean it's great, but let's try and use the right words!

I mean, he still took a bunch of people's money for the feature, then didn't give it back after admitting L5 wasn't coming any time soon.

That is not how marketing works. Show me a reputable book about marketing that says: promise something that doesn't exist.

Alternatively… Explain to me how making predictions about the future that don’t pan out is surprising or alienating to anyone reasonable.

Anyone who thinks predictions about the future hold the same weight as statements about things that currently exist ought to know better.

He's been saying repeatedly that "it's going to be fully self driving next year" for the past 6 years now. At what point for you does that change from "overly optimistic prediction that didn't pan out" to "he's likely lying through his teeth"?

The unsettling duality that Tesla fans will accept is that somehow Musk is both an unrivaled genius AND he's consistently betting incorrectly on Tesla's timeline for L5. When other self-driving experts in the field indicate full L5 for the industry is probably a decade or so away (optimistically), I'm not keen to believe that Musk is just blinded by pure optimism for 6 years running.

If the marketing book said that it would be poorly marketing itself. There’s plenty of “bend the truth” culture in marketing.

By 'how marketing works' do you mean 'how every software sales VP I have ever worked with works'?