Tesla is accelerating with its self-driving car efforts, taking on Google, Uber, Apple and traditional vehicle manufacturers.
After launching a software update for its Model S electric cars that gave it self-driving capabilities in “beta”, the Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, took to Twitter to announce a “ramping up the Autopilot software team at Tesla to achieve generalised full autonomy”.
Should mention that I will be interviewing people personally and Autopilot reports directly to me. This is a super high priority.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2015
Musk has said that full automation of Tesla’s cars should be possible within three years. Its beta Autopilot system is intended to be an advanced cruise-control system capable of changing lanes and navigating obstacles while collecting data to help with the development of further automated driving features.
The race to create cars that can drive themselves has long been led by Google, which has a fleet of autonomous vehicles roaming Californian roads, but recently traditional automakers have revealed advanced projects.
Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Ford and Volvo all have self-driving systems in development. Tesla’s is one of the most advanced on the market. Whether further advances can be made purely in software and pushed out to cars, or whether the vehicles will require new sensors, remains to be seen.
The recent Autopilot software upgrade, while impressive technology, led to some frightening near misses and further warnings from Tesla that it was a feature very much in early testing and not to be relied upon.
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