Elon's infamous tweet: "Wait until you see the real steering controls and system for the 3. It feels like a spaceship."
It just occurred to me that perhaps many of us may have been incorrectly interpreting the phrase "steering controls" to mean "steering wheel" (I include myself in that group).
But in fact the full phrase is "steering controls and system".
What if Elon is saying that at launch, the Model 3 with the EAP and FSDC options enabled will be capable of full autonomous driving. The car will drive itself (not necessarily on any public road anywhere in any weather condition, but on many public roads and at least in most weather conditions).
Just like a future spaceship could do all the calculations to launch itself into orbit or to another planet, in the sense that humans don't steer a spaceship with manual controls, computers calculate course and control the rocket engines.
Now, that doesn't mean that a Model 3 owner will be able to legally let the car drive itself -- with no physical input from the driver -- to a destination given by the owner. That depends on local laws and regulations. But if Elon intends to demonstrate fully autonomous driving at Model 3 launch then that could explain his tweet.
Note: if this happens I am certain that simultaneously Tesla would announce the same capability in all Model S and X that have the EAP/FSDC hardware.
This has been my thought from the beginning. Nicely stated.