Fully autonomous driverless driving is “very close” to becoming reality according to Elon Musk, founder of Tesla.
Musk addressed the World Artificial Conference on Thursday saying he is confident that Tesla will have the basics ready “before the end of the year.”
The upbeat announcement comes when Tesla earlier this month surpassed Toyota as the world’s most valuable automaker, with a market value of close to $ 300 billion, a 260% increase just this year alone.
The Tesla autopilot feature is currently considered to be an ‘advanced driving aid’, where autonomous driving is only allowed on restricted roads such as certain highways and with the driver holding their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the highway at any time to intervene.
According to Musk, the next step is simply a matter of software and addressing a long list of “smaller” problems that occur along the way to achieve full self-driving. The current hardware in Tesla cars, which combines various cameras, ultrasonic sensors, GPS, and radar with accurate maps and software, is enough, Musk says.
Artificial intelligence is key
Artificial intelligence (AI) will play an important role and will require a lot of computing power, Musk said in the video conference, adding that Tesla developed its own chips for that. Otherwise, a trunk full of computer hardware and refrigeration equipment would be needed to process the data and consume too much power.
According to Musk, there are no longer big obstacles to face, but there is a “long line of problems” to tackle. A significant advantage is that Tesla owners around the world have gathered massive data while driving more than a billion miles on autopilot.
Musk announced that the company is “very close” to starting to implement so-called Tier 5 autonomous driving, presumably with Tesla’s optional Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature.
However, even if this is practically feasible, it could still be a long time until we see autonomous driving on roads around the world, New Mobility reports, as the UN only regulated the rules for technology, allowing only autonomy. ‘ Level 3 ‘driving. That’s for autonomous driving at low speeds, in specific “safe” weather and road conditions, where the driver no longer needs to keep his eyes on the road.
The Brussels Times
