Tesla competition in the emerging self-driving vehicle market is mounting as existing auto manufacturers such as General Motors (NYSE:GM) and aspiring upstart rivals that include Google-funded Waymo are advancing their plans to launch commercial ride-hailing services.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is grabbing headlines partly due to its high-profile founder and CEO Elon Musk and his news-making tweets but investors should not expect any of the companies to become a near-term self-driving vehicle Goliath in light of the practical challenges that Waymo and others have incurred. Waymo had intended to launch commercial ride-hailing services later this year but those efforts are not progressing smoothly, since its autonomous vehicle testing in Phoenix is showing excess caution in the view of some human drivers there.

Waymo has driven more than 9 million miles on public roads in 25 U.S. cities and 9 billion in simulation since it began in 2009, so it shows the long-term nature required of any company that seeks to enter that fledgling but highly competitive field. Plus, Waymo’s self-driving Chrysler Pacific hybrid minivan prototypes recently have incurred problems crossing a T-intersection near its Phoenix-area headquarters, indicating that commercial self-driving ride-hailing services still face huge hurdles.

A recent count is that 19 companies already have committed substantial time and investment to launch service. The self-driving vehicle competition is fierce with Tesla, Uber and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) omitted from a list of the current top 10 entrants compiled by Navigant Research.

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Paul Dykewicz, www.pauldykewicz.com, is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, the Journal of Commerce,Seeking Alpha, GuruFocus and other publications and websites. Paul is the editor of StockInvestor.com and DividendInvestor.com, a writer for both websites and a columnist. He further is the editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C., where he edits monthly investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts, free e-letters and other investment reports. Paul previously served as business editor of Baltimore’s Daily Record newspaper. Paul also is the author of an inspirational book, “Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a foreword by former national championship-winning football coach Lou Holtz.