According to a Reuters report on Monday, Tesla’s CEO announced plans to release its self-driving technology by year’s end.
Musk said, according to the Reuters report, “The two technologies I am focused on, trying to ideally get done before the end of the year, are getting our Starship into orbit … and then having Tesla cars to be able to do self-driving”.
Musk announced at an energy conference in Norway that he hopes for a wide release in the US and possibly Europe by year’s end. The timeline will be determined by the approval of regulatory authorities. As a result, you may be able to get your hands on a self-driving vehicle as early as Christmas this year.
There’ve been several new release dates announced each year since Musk first announced the idea in 2016, but they’ve all fallen short of what Musk expected. On one occasion, he promised a Tesla self-autonomous trip from NYC to LA, which got delayed to 2017 and then to 2018, and is yet to be realized.
It’s expected that Tesla’s self-driving technology will significantly diverge from existing features – there’ll not be any requirement for the driver at all.
Together with the Autopilot feature, Tesla’s current self-driving package can perform many autonomous actions such as steering, parking, changing lanes, identifying stop signs, and slowing down the car when approaching these signs. There’s, however, still a need for human direction.
A government report recently revealed that Tesla’s Autopilot feature was involved in the majority (273 crashes) out of 392 crashes involving cars equipped with advanced driver assistance systems in the last year.
Despite these numbers and the hesitancy towards having a vehicle that drives on its own, Musk still believes that self-driving automobiles will be a reality in the near future.