I am very pro-FSD (pre-purchased with our 2017 MS) and a strong proponent of Tesla's tech, vision, and capabilities. However, I believe this hack-a-thon (which I think we can all agree is just a marketing stunt for super talent acquisition) is actually a sign that Tesla does not (yet!) have a path towards FSD, possibly acknowledging that the current path is not going to work.
As has been rehashed so many times already, Elon's predictions about when we (customers) would see a tremendous improvement in self-driving has been "off" to put it mildly. If they had a clear path to what they thought would lead to FSD and simply needed more time, more person-hours, or more data, I don't think they would need to be hosting a hack-a-thon for talent scouting. While those items are likely necessary as part of the overall FSD puzzle, I think they are realizing that they may need to rethink some fundamental aspects of their initial plan, and may be hoping to score some new ideas through new talent.
Certainly a lot has changed since they first embarked on this mission (heck, it's been nearly 6 years since AP1 first came out - Kids in high school have now graduated college with math/science degrees!) so it's bound to be good to acquire superstar talent, just out of pure turnover, but I also think this shows they're aware of their own limitations and "need help" pushing further. What I don't quite understand is what NN rockstar that exceeds the high bar isn't already aware of Tesla and what they're doing? Either they've applied and got rejected or have no interest in the job, right?