Business tycoon Elon Musk expects Tesla to achieve full autonomy “later this year.” The estimated timeline came from the CEO himself on Thursday during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai.
“In terms of where Tesla is at this stage, I think we are very close to achieving full self-driving without human supervision. This is only speculation, but I think we’ll achieve full self-driving, maybe what you would call four or five, I think later this year.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
CEO Musk’s interesting remarks signify his latest outlook on the highly awaited technology after numerous ambitious and failed forecasts.
Missed deadlines
The Tesla boss surprisingly conceded on Thursday that his previous expectations of the arrival of the company’s actual “full self-driving” cars had been wrong.
Nonetheless, he assured investors and enthusiasts that the automaker is continuously progressing toward the technological breakthrough.
“I feel like we’re closer to it than we ever have been.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
However, it must be noted that CEO Musk has been saying that for at least five years already.
Apart from that, the automaker’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta has prompted regulatory investigations in the US.
Nonetheless, this latest prediction aligns with CEO Musk’s April announcement that Tesla might finally offer full autonomy this year.
“…For those that are using the FSD beta, I think you can see the improvements are really quite dramatic. There’ll be a little bit of two steps forward, one step back between releases for those trying the beta. But the trend is very clearly towards full self-driving, towards full autonomy. And I hesitate to say this, but I think we’ll do it this year. So that’s what it looks like.”
CEO Elon Musk stated at the conference call on April 20
Tesla boss believes in China in AI advancement
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s participation at the government-backed AI conference demonstrates his latest major move to ensure its close ties to the world’s largest auto industry, following his two-day China trip in May.
The business tycoon’s intention to maintain a healthy relationship with China is unsurprising, considering that it is Tesla’s second biggest market. It also homes the company’s EV hub Gigafactory Shanghai.
Apart from these, CEO Musk also believes in China’s potential to establish very strong AI capabilities.
During the recent AI conference, he asked the Chinese government to impose more stringent regulatory measures involving the technology as part of his strategy to dominate the autonomous driving industry a bit.
For context, CEO Musk and other tech leaders reportedly paused research on advanced AI to further analyze its potential risks to people. Some of them worry that the technology can result in human extinction, reflecting the Tesla boss’ past sentiment.
See Also:
- Tesla CEO expects to achieve “full autonomy” in 2023
- Tesla prepares to remove beta label from Full Self-Driving feature with Version 12
- Secret “Elon Mode” unveiled by a Tesla hacker
- Mercedes-Benz bests Tesla for California’s approval of self-driving tech
- Tesla CEO comments on Cruise Robotaxi’s mishap
All that said, it remains vague whether this latest forecast on Tesla’s full autonomy development will actually materialize.
Fully autonomous vehicles still need many technical breakthroughs, with experts remaining doubtful of their immediate arrival in the country.
