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Tesla has recently made bold statements about its future autonomous driving projects, including recently staging an "Autonomous Investor Event" during which the company presented plans for its future autonomous driving technology. At this event, Tesla said that he would be ready to deploy a fully autonomous robotaxi fleet as early as next year, depending on the regulations.
Today, CEO Elon Musk has slightly pushed back this deadline and said that Tesla's long-planned, self-sustaining trip will take place later this year. In the past, Tesla claimed to allow travel on several autopilots, but the news is that it will not only be possible for Tesla to do it itself to demonstrate its technology, but that any Tesla owner (* with FSD software) will be able to do the same thing.
Musk has already mentioned that Tesla could use specialized software to make the detour, but that it would be "cheating" to do so. Certainly, choosing the right routes, writing software specific to certain situations, would make the job a lot easier. However, it is much more difficult to find a generalized solution to self-driving, as there will be many more unforeseen situations and poorly marked rates in the real world.
Tesla has therefore pushed back the plans for an LA-NY roadtrip until the software is ready without a special code.
Until now, we expected this roadtrip to happen on a private internal version of the Tesla software, which is used to help with development and demonstration purposes, and that the software allowing activating it may not be fully available to the public until later. The last time we heard about it, it would happen with the "alpha" software, which owners do not have access to.
But today, Musk suggested that this software be available to everyone by the end of the year:
We could have played a LA / NY autopilot course last year, but when we do it this year, everyone with Tesla Full Self-Driving can do it too
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2019
Tesla and Musk are not strangers to short deadlines, but this one seems shorter than most others. In less than 8 months, Tesla will not only be able to demonstrate across the country, but the public will be able to do so too.
There is still much more to do before. The autopilot still does not stop at the stop signs and the red lights (although it recognizes them), it has stopped very recently and asked for confirmation from the driver when changing lanes , and still has problems with some things like stationary vehicles. Drivers must also keep their hands on the steering wheel. The FSD's computer has only been put into service recently and tens of thousands of cars will have to be upgraded before "everyone" has this capability.
Some still think that Tesla's approach is unsustainable, with most other players in the industry believing that LIDAR is necessary to achieve self-driving. But as we have pointed out recently, at least one expert in artificial intelligence agrees that Tesla has a huge lead in software. And a recent Cornell study indicates that cameras should be enough for autonomous driving. Musk, for one, thinks that any company that relies on LIDAR as a crutch is "doomed …condemned!"
Questions remain as to whether this reader will be a "zero intervention" reader in which the driver will never touch the steering wheel (but still, for example, leave the car in the car park, plug it into the car, etc.) or if she will do it. being a simulated "headless" reader where the driver is inside the car only for regulatory purposes, but where the car acts as if no one was there. The latter had been promised in 2016 when Musk said that by two years ago (by 2018), the owners could use Tesla 's "Summoning" function to have the car pick them up. at the other end of the country, recharging even on the way. .
Electrek's Take
We have heard these promises many times before and Tesla has already missed many deadlines. Musk himself acknowledges that he is sometimes optimistic about deadlines, which seems to be another example that seems quite optimistic.
However, about a year prior to the original 2014 Tesla autopilot version, the Model S did not have any active safety / driver assistance features, and Mr. Musk testified that Tesla would be ahead of the autonomous driving industry in a year. At the time, no one believed it, but this claim eventually came true – and it was even at the time. And Tesla has maintained its lead in driver assistance software ever since.
So it could go both ways. They may succeed this time, but I do not count yet. I would like to see it though, and if that happens, I imagine a roadtrip will be appropriate.
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