Elon Musk is someone who is known well for his eclectic interests, bold claims and the ability to deliver on those claims. Musk is the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, and also the founder/co-founder of The Boring Company, Neuralink and OpenAI. With his hands in numerous honey jars, it’s difficult to tell what Musk is up to. Last week, he made a bunch of new announcements, some of which again fall in the bold claims category and are bordering on sci-fi.
World’s first fully self-driving car incoming
Self-driving car tech has been around for a while now but there are still major hurdles when it comes to taking a drivers’ hands completely off the steering wheel. Tesla is one of the automobile companies which is constantly working on closing the gap and improving the tech. Elon Musk, in an earnings call last week, said that he is already testing an updated version of Tesla’s Autopilot software on his commute to work in Los Angeles.
“It’s almost getting to a point where I can go from my house to work with no interventions, despite going through construction and widely varying situations,” he said. “So this is why I’m very confident about full self-driving functionality being complete by the end of this year. It’s because I’m literally driving it.”
So, it seems like this could be the year Tesla might add Level 5 autonomous driving features to some of its cars. Tesla uses Autopilot software that relies on a radar, eight external cameras, and 12 ultrasonic sensors. Other companies such as GM, Ford, Honda, Toyota and others are also working on full autonomous driving technology and aim to perfect the feature by 2021.