I predict that these kinds of unexpected edge cases will keep popping up for several years. It certainly will be interesting to see how robust their image processing algorithms get as time goes on, but I wouldn't hold my breath for reliable full self driving for a while.
First get something working, then reduce costs, not the other way around.
I'm on the fence as to whether it's a good or bad decision ... but let's not pretend they're idiots.
E.g. just a quarter mile is already in the noise.