Autonomous cars were once considered a thing that would only exist way WAY into the future. I can say I am fortunate enough to be living in that future. When looking specifically at the Tesla, many people where initially shocked, amused and even scared of the idea of a car that does not need a human driver. It opened up many possibilities as well as many new concerns and issues that were never considered before.
This technology could fall into many categories depending on what it being used for and how. Originally I thought of autonomous vehicles, to be a social technology since it is a luxury car and those that own one have them as a status symbol. However, looking deeper into it, I see that it is becoming very political as well since it has to be regulated in more ways than thought of before. Self-driving cars, just as their name suggests, are cars that no longer require a human driver to be fully aware, or ideally even present, in the car to from location to location. They were created, as pretty much everything we have today, to make life easier. If someone no longer has to be aware when driving that gives the person extra time during the day to do anything else, whether its doing one's makeup, eating a meal, responding emails, ...
The company itself claims to be big on diversity. They are an “Equal Opportunity/ Affirmative Action employer.” However, there does seem to be some bias when it comes to their target audience. As mentioned earlier, Tesla cars, and other self-driving cars, are luxury vehicles. The price range automatically makes this car unavailable to the average person. Up until electric autonomous cars become more common,