The thing is it’s been “real close” for ~10 years. But they’ve solved the “easy” problems. In development you spend 90% of your time on 10% of the problems. This is why fusion power has been “real close” for 30 years as well. Those remaining problems are the hard ones.
I genuinely don’t know why Tesla doesn’t just focus on the safety aspects of their tech rather than the “self-driving” BS. Having a car that will stop for me if the car in front slams their brakes on unexpectedly is a great thing. That’s a lot of accidents avoided.