Elon Musk is at it again with his claims about Tesla's perfected self-drive technology.
The Tesla CEO recently stated at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China, that he believes the company will achieve full autonomy later in 2023 - a claim he previously said on April 20 (coincidentally).
Musk previously stated that Tesla's cars could become fully autonomous before 2023 ends, though with some hesitation, in the quarterly earnings call Tesla had in April.
Elon Musk's Claims About Tesla Full Autonomy
Musk had ceaselessly reminded people of Tesla's timeline about full autonomy since mid-2020 when Musk said that Tesla was close to allegedly achieving level five autonomy in the same year to no avail.
For those unaware, Musk was - and still is - referring to the Society of Automotive Engineers' (SAE) levels of driving automation, which gauges how autonomous a vehicle is. Level five autonomy, according to the Society, means that a car doesn't need a driver to drive or take over for its onboard AI at all.
The car can also drive autonomously in all conditions, removing human involvement and any errors that come with it from the equation.
Despite Tesla failing to deliver full autonomy back then, he didn't waver in claiming the company would achieve full autonomy soon; he has done so again for the second time this year in China.
According to Mashable, Musk said Tesla is "very close to achieving full self-driving without human supervision" and will achieve level four or five autonomy later in 2023 - a change in what he said in the past few years, per Electrek.
For level four autonomy, the SAE states that while a car no longer requires a driver in the driver's seat, it can only do so under limited conditions and will not operate unless those are met.
He also took a jab at himself and the claims he made during the past few years, admitting that he's been wrong about his predictions before. However, he stated he now feels Tesla is closer to achieving fully autonomous driving than it had ever been.
Will It Really?
Musk's claims have become hard to believe since he had repeated them in the past without delivering - the release of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta had made Tesla's goals for full automation more vague and disappointing. The company previously promised that every car sold since 2016 can drive entirely by itself at "a level safer than humans."
However, Electrek writer Fred Lambert doesn't believe Tesla can achieve level five autonomy anytime soon due to hardware limitations, let alone level 4. He cited that the FSD's current state prevents it from driving the car in the snow and heavy rain, sending the driver "weather alerts" and notifications about the car's sensors being covered, forcing them to take over.
Whether Tesla could achieve full autonomous driving before 2023 ends is debatable, though it's quite clear most people wouldn't hold their breaths for it.
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