I too am skeptical (but happy to be proven wrong) about Honda's L3 claims. I think the "automaker optimism" is really just referring to Tesla loudly claiming they "will hit L5 this year" every year since 2015 while continuing to struggle. I don't see other automakers making such aggressive promises, thankfully.
I am hopeful coming from Honda that they have solved some of the critical issues. I was really impressed with their rider assist [1] for their new motorcycles and the ability to balance a bike. Perhaps that is a small feat compared to what level 3 will require but I am confident Honda will pull it off. This opinion is also based off the fact that I have a couple 37 year old Honda motorcycles that still to this day run strong and hard. I am just optimistic they can do what they say.
