Tesla Motors' CEO Elon Musk stated on Tuesday May 7 that he is talking with Google about the development of an "autopilot" feature in his company's line of electric vehicles.
Musk commented that such technology is a logical development for vehicles and noted that he prefers the term "autopilot" to describe these advances.
"I like the word autopilot more than I like the word self-driving," Musk said in an interview. "Self-driving sounds like it's going to do something you don't want it to do. Autopilot is a good thing to have in planes, and we should have it in cars."
Founded by Elon Musk, Tesla Motors is an electric car company based out of Silicon Valley. Google preceded Tesla in moving toward self-driving vehicles in 2010, at which time the company had already made technology for such cars. The Google vehicles operated through radar sensors, video cameras and laser range finders for digital map access and traffic identification.
Musk, however, said that Google's approach is too costly.
"The problem with Google's current approach is that the sensor system is too expensive," Musk said. "It's better to have an optical system, basically cameras with software that is able to figure out what's going on just by looking at things."
Partnering with Google could serve Elon Musk and Tesla Motors well. While Google is more known for ambitious projects that don't always reach the public, Tesla Motors approaches technology differently. If Tesla Motors and Google team up, it will be interesting to see what results.
