At least where I live the laws are such that publishers can claim copyrights only after they added their “editor” customizations such as publisher logos, page numbers, layout changes etc.

The manuscript that you/the scientist wrote and handed in to the publisher is free of that, the publisher cannot claim any rights at that state. So you always have the right to publish the “unedited” manuscript anywhere including researchgate, arxiv, your website etc.

Nobody mentioned udm14.com ?

Well yes, but the end result after driving unattended in traffic for a while is the same still, that’s the point. You could argue that a FSD Tesla makes it a bit further, I guess that’s true but still it’s far from what Elon was selling to the people.

That argument is stupid. My robot lawn mower “can drive itself” but it can’t follow traffic rules and would crash after a while if set to drive on its own in a road. Just as a Tesla. What Musk was implying was “it can drive itself without violating traffic rules and causing crashes” and clearly it can’t.