Tesla Autopilot, autonomous driving, Elon Musk, ARK Invest – Clean Tech Interview with Tasha Keeney



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April 20, 2019 by Zachary Shahan


For our new series of interviews on the CleanTech Talk Podcast, I recently met with Tasha Keeney, an badyst at ARK Invest, to discuss various aspects of autonomous vehicles, Tesla, Tesla and Tesla. Tasha specializes in autonomous cars and 3D printing at ARK Invest. Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest, recently invited Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, in studio for their new podcast series. So we took advantage of this cat and I also touched on several key topics in self-reliance, which I would always like to learn more about.

The conversation lasted about 45 minutes. To reduce it to more manageable portions, I divided it into two episodes. This is the first episode and the second will be released tomorrow. Listen to the discussion on your favorite podcast platform (options linked below) or via this built-in player:

You can subscribe and listen CleanTech Talk is activated: Anchor, Apple Podcasts / iTunes, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket, Podbean, Public Radio, SoundCloud, Spotify and Stitcher.

For starters, I asked Tasha about her background and place in ARK Invest. Previously, she was a management consultant, primarily in the automotive industry on the supply chain side. We briefly discussed the autonomous vehicle industry and its suppliers before heading to Tesla and the company's large team of experts who are dedicated daily to the advancement of the Tesla autopilot and who are meeting with Elon on a weekly basis.

I then raised my favorite CleanTechnica Tesla Autonomous Driving article, written by Mike Barnard in 2015 and republished last year when Tesla has traveled 1 billion miles on his autopilot. I highly recommend reading this article before or after listening to the podcast. Tasha drew on this summary to learn a little more technical, partly explaining why they are optimistic about Tesla's approach to autonomy.

I've also referred to a report by Navigant Research that places Tesla at the bottom of the list with respect to autonomous vehicle strategy and development. I found these conclusions puzzling, but I had a general idea of ​​why they were what they were. So I was curious to hear what Tasha thought of that. She insisted that Tesla did not use prototype vehicles, which could be confusing for badysts, and may have been based too much on California's disengagement reports (which are not reality not standardized and that are self-declared).

Another subject of curiosity for me for years is precisely how and to what extent Tesla uses "ghost driving" or "ghost mode" to improve the autopilot and, possibly, the Full Self Driving. It is clear that Tesla's approach is to learn from pilots on which the autopilot is activated then to disengage for some reason, but I also wonder how much Tesla software learns to drive simply by monitoring what drivers do humans. without Autopilot enabled. Talking with Elon, Tasha believes that autopilot disengagement is particularly important, but that the system must take advantage of phantom testing. (This is really an interesting topic to talk to Elon or a member of his autopilot team, because there is still a lot of mystery.)

Lex Fridman from MIT tracks the kilometers driven by the Tesla autopilot. Tasha builds on the work of ARK Invest to conclude that Tesla vehicles with "Autopilot 2" traveled 10 billion kilometers, capturing or quantifying the miles potentially involved in ghost / ghost learning.

Turning to the subject of complete self-driving, Tasha commented on Elon's comment on ARK Invest's podcast that he, along with his team, thought that Tesla vehicles "will be complete – to complete self-driving – this year "and could be ready for drivers. to sleep driving a year later – but it mostly depends on the regulators. Tasha said it was probably an aggressive timeline, but since it came from Elon, how could it be otherwise? Let's go back to the conversation between ARK Invest and Elon: that's what he said: "I imagine when you would think it's safe to let someone sleep and to sleep. to wake up at destination? Probably by the end of next year. That's when I think it would be safe enough for that. Again, however, it is up to regulators to decide when this is allowed. Tasha and I discussed this subject of regulators / regulations for a few minutes.

We then briefly talked about flying taxis and vertical takeoff and landing electric planes (eVTOLs) – fun topics, but this will be a subject for another badyst and a podcast discussion.

We completed the first part of this two-part discussion on the processing power needed in autonomous vehicles, its importance for live software updates, and the general leadership of Tesla hardware and software. Highlighting this challenge for both clbadic and established builders, Tasha had this to say:

"We call this at ARK the kind of problem of old DNA. When innovation happens, you can be caught off guard if you are very stuck. I think it's a huge problem for traditional automobiles. And same thing with autonomy.

"If they did, they would have an even larger fleet than Tesla, is not it? They could get this data. But Tesla started years in front of them. So we think it's possible that they can totally escape with this opportunity. "

In this case, Tasha and I talked about a presentation by George Hotz (aka geohot) and a brief exchange of questions and answers in which he pointed out that Tesla had such a big advance in software, Part because the material. For more on that, I recommend this CleanTechnica exclusive: Geohot: Tesla Autopilot = Apple iOS, Comma.ai = Android.

The second part of our interview with Tasha Keeney will be published tomorrow here CleanTechnica, including on the CleanTech Talk part of our site. In the meantime, I recommend this article and this podcast to learn more about the following topics: Elon Musk: Teslas with fully autonomous driving this year, the Tesla autopilot "unequivocal" improves safety.

You want to buy a Tesla model 3, model S or model X? Need a reference code to get 1,000 miles of free overfeed? Use ours: http://ts.la/tomasz7234 (or not).


Keywords: AI, Ark Invest, Artificial Intelligence, Clean Tech Conversation, Elon Musk, George Hotz, Lex Fridman, LIDAR, MIT, Podcasts, Tasha Keeney, Tesla, Tesla Autopilot, Tesla Full Self-Driving


About the author

Zachary Shahan Zach tries to help the society to help herself (and other species). He spends most of his time here CleanTechnica as director and editor. He is also the president of Important media and the director / founder of Obsession EV and Solar love. Zach is recognized worldwide as an expert in electric vehicles, solar energy and energy storage. He has lectured on clean technologies at conferences in India, the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States and Canada.

Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG and ABB. After years devoted to sun protection and electric vehicles, he simply has confidence in these companies and has the impression that they are good clean tech companies in which to invest. it does not offer any professional investment advice and can not be held responsible for your loss of money, so do not rush.



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