I don't think anyone was ever arguing "not only are we going to develop self driving technology but we're going to build out the factories to mass produce self driving cars, and convince all the regulatory bodies to permit these cars, and phase out all the non-self driving vehicles already on the road, and do this all at a price point equal or less than current vehicles" in 5 to 10 years. "We will have self driving cars in 10 years" was always said in the same way "We will go to the moon in 10 years" was said in the early 60s.
"Achieving that goal necessitates a production system supporting it" is very different from "If the control system is a full team in a remote location, this vehicle is not autonomous at all" which was what GP said.