What's "release" mean?

Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
To "release" something means to launch something, to introduce something new. In this context, when the speaker says "instead of releasing vehicles and working towards autonomy," the speaker wants to express that certain startups are rejecting launching vehicles of various stages of autonomous development and skipping straight to the goal of autonomous vehicles. In essence, they are skipping the "middle" steps and skipping straight to the release (launch or introduction) of cars that can drive on their own. Ex: My favorite fashion house released their new summer collection. Ex: My favorite singer released a new album.