Tesla’s visionary CEO, Elon Musk, announced on Twitter late Monday that all his electric vehicles will start to feature full self-driving capability within just six months. He made the statement after comments were given on the pace of upgrades to Tesla’s semi-automated Autopilot driving system. “3 months maybe, 6 months definitely,” he responded on the question regarding how soon the feature might be available.
On the significance of a “Full Self Driving Capability”, he said that "safety should improve significantly due to autonomy features, even if regs disallow no driver present.” However, Elon Musk didn't define what he means by “Full Self-Driving Capability” in his Twitter comments, or how extensive the modifications would be. Tesla have begun rolling out software updates earlier this month to begin the shift of enhanced autopilot to fully self-driving on newer cars.
According to Jalopnik , some of the more exciting features of a fully self driving Tesla is the Autopark Summon. At low speed, it allows a driver to scan for a parking space and parallel park on its own. However, another feature have puzzled users as only 45 mph is the maximum for Autosteer.
Musk explained that the low speed is for caution in heavy traffic and that limit will raise as soon as they get data. Tesla have been giving out vehicle updates for self-driving in increments but hopes to equip all of its cars within six months. There are numerous questions on how exactly self-driving cars are regulated after several Teslas have encountered accidents but were cleared from investigation.
According to the Forbes , the Society of Automotive Engineers has set different levels of vehicle autonomy, ranging from 0 to Level 5. Highest level of capability means that a vehicle can drive itself at all times under all conditions without human input whatsoever, while Level 4 autonomy means that a vehicle can be autonomous most of the time, within determined parameters. It is presumed that Elon Musk might be able to bring Teslas attain something close to Level 4.
