I don't think we should limit to just engineering; you see this stuff in media, politics, finances, statistics, etc. Anything that is not well understood by the public at large is ripe for misuse.
There have been amazing leaps in astrophysics; gravitational wave detection, planet detection around other stars (>4000), first image of a black hole, not to mention all the space probes doing science throughout the solar system. Outside of astrophysics, I think CRISPR has tremendous potential as well.
I don't disagree that too much of our collective intelligence is spent trying to sell advertisements, it's a shame.
Currently, the demand is still strong enough that the wait time on a new TM3 is 4-8 weeks. That may decrease, but right now Tesla can't make them fast enough.
The IIHS rates TM3 it's top tier aware of Top Safety Pick+ which is a higher rating than the Bolt (noted in the article)[0]. This doesn't factor in autopilot although it does evaluate collision avoidance systems, which must rate advanced to superior.